Post War
by JosieCarioca
Summary: October 1998. Severus Snape has survived the war and returns to Spinner s End to battle his own inner demons as the Dark Lord remaining followers begin to regroup. Meanwhile an Irish woman with a mysterious family past moves to the abandoned house next door. Alternative Universe/What if. (Severus Snape x Evelyn Black) (Onesided Severus Snape x Lily Evans)
1. Part 1-The Visit- Chapter 1

Chapter I

Spinner´s End, Cokeworth, Northern England.

October, 1998.

Severus put down the book and puffed heavily. It was the sixth time the bloody doorbell had rung.

Probably the teenage delinquents who were in the inconvenient habit of roaming Spinner´s End on occasion. During the past few years, they had been coming over to that abandoned part of town whenever they felt bored or were being chased by the police. As a matter of fact, with the street´s alarming state of decay, most of its houses deserted, it was rather surprising that the juvenile gangster-hopefuls didn´t come around to "visit" more often.

Spinner´s End was after all a perfect hiding place...Nobody better than Severus knew that...

But the fact was that Spinner´s End was ruined to such a degree that not even those little punks took a more than passing interest in it. Sometimes they entered an abandoned house to smoke, played some loud music (that is, if that godawful cacophony could be called "music" at all), or just wandered around cursing, fighting and generally raising hell, before getting bored and moving on to more interesting acts of vandalism.

After Severus had moved back, the little dunderheads had decided to stick around for longer, thrilled to have a potential new victim to play with. But a couple of simple charms managed to convince the youngsters that Spinner´s End was haunted, much to Severus´ amusement...Soon they had disappeared...And yet, after months of complete peace, there they were at it again.

They would learn their lesson this time...

He yanked the door open, his other hand reaching for the magically locked wooden cabinet where he kept his wand, but instead of a rowdy bunch of brats, all Severus saw was a woman standing at his door.

"Good afternoon..." she let out in a husky voice, a courteous smile on her lips.

"Good afternoon" he answered grudgingly "And before you waste your breath: whatever it is you´re advertising, I´m not interested."

With a flick of his wrist the door moved. But her hand stopped it before it could slam in her face. Taken aback, Severus opened the door again. Her gall had managed to catch his interest. He inspected the woman before him from head to toe, his eyes both focused and disdainful.

Certainly a muggle... about 30-years old, quite tall, probably around 5'8 or 5'9 (she had heeled boots on, though, so he could be wrong), with a sturdy yet willowy build. Her dark brown hair was held back in a tight ponytail that showed off a rather particular face: strong eyebrows, alert golden brown eyes, a Greek nose and a somewhat wide mouth. Her olive complexion showed rosy undertones in the chilly Autumn wind. She wore a brick red blouse, brown scarf and brown skirt, with a beige overcoat that, although elegant, looked a bit too light for the temperature outside. She was good-looking, Severus conceded...But that only made her presence at his doorstep all the more odd... Good-looking, well-dressed people were not an usual occurrence at Spinner´s End...

"I´m sorry to bother you... My name is Evelyn, Evelyn Black." She stretched out her hand, but Severus merely looked at her, motionless and uninterested. She cracked a very uneasy smile. It was obvious she was forcing herself to be polite in spite of his bluntness. Only now Severus noticed his visitor had a slight accent...he couldn´t quite pinpoint where from...Irish, maybe? Definitely not Scottish...Well, it didn´t matter.

"Uh...-she continued-I just moved here and..."

"You just...moved" Severus raised an eyebrow "Here?"

"Well, yes. Just this morning..."

"Why would you do that?" Why would anybody do that?, he thought to himself, but said nothing.

"It´s a long story, actually..."

"It was a rhetorical question..." Severus interrupted her, using a purposely condescending tone, a wry smile dancing on his thin lips. She was visibly annoyed now. Good. Only a matter of moments before she decided to leave him alone.

"Actually...I don´t plan on wasting too much of your time, let alone annoying you with unwelcome stories" She answered in a mellow tone filled with subtle contempt.

Severus rolled his eyes. He had obviously underestimated her.

"I´m just looking for someone..." She took out an old and rugged little notebook from her purse "Eileen Prince. Does she live here?"

Severus blinked and just stared at her for a long moment, completely disarmed.

"Snape..." He let out quietly

"I beg your pardon?"

"Eileen Snape...Prince was her maiden name..."

"Oh, so she does live here."

"Not anymore."

"I see..." Evelyn shifted on her feet "She moved then..."

"She´s dead... Has been for twenty years actually."

Evelyn bit her lower lip, obviously embarrassed

"I´m sorry to hear that...In that case, I guess I should get going then..."

"Wait a minute, Miss...I´sorry, you said your name was..?"

"Black. Evelyn Black." As she relaxed and her accent came through more clearly... Irish...she was definitely Irish, Severus thought to himself "Mr... Snape, I assume?"

"Severus Snape..." He opened the door all the way and cocked his head back gesturing for her to come in.


	2. Part 1-The Visit- Chapter 2

Chapter II

Evelyn just stood there.

Why the heck was she hesitating so much? Wasn´t this what she wanted? To talk to the owner of that house. Eileen Prince...No, Eileen Snape... Who was dead, which probably made the grumpy man standing at the door the current owner. So, Evelyn had to talk to him. That was the whole reason she had decided to come to Spinner´s End wasn´t it?

When she arrived that morning, after spending the night at a hotel in a more lively part of Cokeworth, Evelyn had the vivid impression of walking into a ghost town. "Isn´t this how most horror movies start?" She had thought to herself, as she watched through her car windows how the rows of decrepit houses passed by. From the little she had researched, Evelyn knew the whole neighbourhood had been purpose-built to house the families of the mill workers. The mill itself towered ominously over the dark and filthy streets and alleys bellow, its long chimneys pointing up at a steel-grey autumn sky. It didn´t function since the 80s, and it just stood there like a fossil, a skeleton of a once living monster, now dead and abandoned.

In fact the whole of Spinner´s End felt dead. She knew most inhabitants of that part of town had long left, following the closing of the mill. From the newspapers she had read in the local library, the exodus had started long before that. It seemed the mill offered very poor working conditions and the machines were rather accident prone, with many of the workers sustaining serious injuries...Furthermore, the rejects pilled up on the fields around it and into the river, severely polluting the water. When the competent authorities had finally closed down the mill, about half of the residents of the area were already gone, and the rest was soon to follow. Eileen Prince might not even live there anymore...

In retrospect it coming to Spinner´s End probably had been a quite stupid idea from the start. All that she knew was that her grandfather had a house in Cokeworth, located on a street called Spinner´s End. Nobody knew that until the day her father died leaving behind some old boxes filled with books and papers that he had hidden in the cellar after her grandfather´s death.

It all struck her as incredibly odd...

Evelyn was living in Dublin when her grandfather passed away. She had been thinking of coming back to Doolin, her hometown, and his death only sped up her decision. After the burial, her grandmother had given her father a number of old objects and boxes filled with bizarre stuff that her grandfather kept locked away in a spare room. Evelyn had a hard time convincing her father not to throw it all away. Instead he just locked everything up and never let her (or anyone else for good measure) anywhere near it. And those boxes stayed up there, abandoned in the cellar, collecting dust, for about two years, until her father passed away himself. Only then did Evelyn get to see what was inside...

Among the many bizarre things she found there was the deed of the Spinner´s End house. As far as she knew her grandfather had left England when he was a little over twenty, and lived in Ireland until his death. He had no relatives and no ties left with England...also as, far as she knew, he was from London... That he had a house on the Northen city of Cokeworth was a complete surprise to her and to the rest of the family. Maybe they shouldn´t have been so surprised...There was a lot of about him that nobody knew, not even her grandmother. Still, the house in Spinner´s End had intrigued her.

It had probably been a poorly thought-out move on her part to actually decide to move into her grandfather´s new-found house. But it only struck her as a downright bad idea when she actually saw Spinner´s End for the first time. She had arranged for the many books and objects she had brought with her from Doolin to be delivered on the morning after her arrival at Cokeworth. She had spent the day before researching the history of that part of town, but nothing could have prepared her for the reality of what was Spinner´s End. As she stopped her car in front of her new home, Evelyn had to pull the deed out of her bag and double-check the address, just to make sure it wasn´t a mistake.

The house was almost at the end of the street, there was only one more house separating it from the woods (precisely Eileen Prince´s house). It looked exactly as one would expect from a house that had been empty for decades: offensive graffiti and a thick layer of grime and dust covered the walls, to the extent that it was impossible to make out their actual colour, most windows were broken and the few that remained were so dirty the glass on them was opaque and the ceiling had many missing shingles. The stench coming from the nearby-river was almost unbearable, and the sheer amount of trash everywhere suddenly made her realize that a rat infestation was a very real possibility.

Still, she drew in a deep breath and entered.

Evelyn was surprised to find that the original furniture was still inside...For whatever reason the vandals that ran wild in the neighbouring areas had refrained from causing too much damage inside. A lot of the more delicate objects like mirrors and vases were broken, but the chairs, armchairs, tables, cabinets, paintings, rugs, books...all were still there, albeit covered in a thick layer of dust and scattered around in complete disorder. But the most disconcerting part of it was not that the objects were still there.. it was the object themselves. Spinner´s End was a poor neighbourhood of mill-workers...And yet, that particular house was filled with very high quality furniture and decorations, mostly in an art-déco style, with lots of XIX-century looking stuff thrown in...It felt almost as if whoever had decorated it was purposely trying to hide all that luxury behind a working-class façade.

She thanked heavens for having had the providence to have the electrical wiring and plumbing checked. Spinner´s End wasn´t completely deserted yet so it had a supply of electricity and water and she imagined that, at the very least, she should make sure to have everything working if she was to move in. The wiring apparently dated from the 20´s which would have made it one of the first houses in the street to have it. The electrician and plumber she had hired for the job were both amazed that everything still worked...

After having her belongings brought inside, she decided to explore. Unlike the sitting room all the other rooms were closed. She had found many keys among her grandfather´s mysterious objects, and was pretty unimpressed by the fact that each one of them seemed to be a match for each of the locks in the house...

Although the house followed the street´s general and rather simplistic pattern of one sitting room, one kitchen, two bedrooms and one bathroom all in minuscule proportions, each of the rooms was as richly decorated as the sitting room. Also, aside from the dust, the other rooms didn´t seem to have been touched in the least. Probably because they had been locked up until now. Everything looked as if the former occupants had just left home for a stroll in the park and never came back, leaving everything behind as it was. There were still clothes and personal objects, all organized and kept in their correct places, as if waiting for their owners to come back and use them. Among the seemingly normal things like shoes, spectacles or books, she could see numerous unidentifiable articles...She couldn´t even begin to phantom the utility of any of them.

But the most unsettling part was by far the alarming lack of rats, cockroaches or any other pest... How could a house abandoned for some seventy-odd years not have one single mouse? She had opened the wardrobes and cabinets, rummaged though the clothes and books, taken out the bedsheets, flipped the mattresses ...and nothing. Not one insect, not one rat, not one sign of termite, clothes-moth or bookworms. Not even a single fly. More startlingly still, she found no traces of mold, no infiltrations, no cracks on the walls, no rips on the wallpapers...

It was all too..bizarre.

Curiosity had always been her most proeminent personality trait. Her father and grandfather often praised her inquiring nature, and gave her free reign to exercise it. They would feed her curiosity with books, movies, fairy-tales, everything that could serve as fuel for her intellect and imagination. She remembered how, growing up, her favorite past time had been investigating the old Celtic and medieval ruins and relics scattered around the valleys surrounding her hometown, always in the company of her big brother Paul. Her mother was less than impressed by their adventurous outings, but her father and grandfather were always openly proud of her intellectual pursuits. It was pretty obvious from an early age that she would follow on her father´s footsteps and become a Historian. Actually she had gone a bit farther than that...while her father was a History teacher in a small catholic school in a little Irish village, she was a professor of history, a successful one if her published books proved anything. Her inquisitive nature had brought her far and she was proud of it.

But this day, as she rummaged through the room of the freakish house her grandfather had left her, she started to think that maybe, for the first time in her life, being curious might not be so great... But her greatest flaw wasn´t curiosity, though...It was stubbornness. Which obviously meant that she was going to finish what she had started. She had moved into her grandfather´s house, now she had to find Eileen Prince.

Eileen Prince´s house was right next door, and all she had to do was come over an knock. It was simple enough. An yet, as she stood in front of that door, she felt quite disheartened... What did she know about Eileen Prince? Only her name and date of birth... What if she wasn´t there...Then what would she do? Go back to her grandfather´s papers and reread them all, look for clues in that indecipherable house...Trying to make sense of it all just seemed like something she couldn´t do alone. Eileen Prince, whomever she was, was probably the only person who could help...What would she do if she wasn´t there? She knocked and, as she feared, nobody answered. She kept knocking... Once, twice, three times, four times, six times. As if it would work...

Just as she turned to leave, cursing the day she had had the brilliant idea of starting this ludicrous investigation, the door opened and her heart actually skipped a bit. It obviously wasn´t Eileen Prince who had answered the door, but a tall, hook-nosed man with black over-long hair and sickly pale skin dressed in black from head to toe. For a moment she wondered if he was dressed for Halloween, even though they were in the first week of October. Relieved to find someone to talk to, she had tried to start a conversation, but he would have none of it. But it didn´t really matter how rude he was, Evelyn had to get the information she wanted. Making her best to remain calm in spite of his snarky replies, she insisted, not even acknowledging his resistance. After all, she hadn´t come all the way here to be have some random blockhead with poor social-skills thwart her plans. After a little verbal tug of war, she finally managed to ask what she wanted to know.

"I´m just looking for someone..." She said, using the gentlest tone she could muster in the midst of her crescent exasperation "Eileen Prince. Does she live here?"

Evelyn had never seen a man´s expression change so quickly. That condescending grimace vanished from his lips, and his dark, aggressive eyes turned to puzzled and then to melancholic in a split second.

"Snape" He said quietly, in a tone that was almost gentle.

"I beg you pardon?"

"Eileen Snape...Prince was her maiden name" His voice was suddenly filled with a unmistakable tone of sadness.

"Oh, so she does live here" Evelyn let out without thinking, just to keep him talking.

"Not anymore" His deep voice just grew graver and graver with each word. Only now the muted tone let her notice his voice was a quite beautiful baritone.

"I see..." Evelyn shifted on her feet, uneasy "She moved then..."

"She´s dead... Has been for twenty years actually." That last sentence had been barely more than a whisper,.

Evelyn looked at his face. His contemptuous expression had now completely vanished, and his face was merely somber. The dark eyes seemed to look right through her. Having lost her brother at a young age and both her father and grandfather not too long ago, Evelyn could say she knew what thousand yard stare meant. It was obvious this man was very close to Eileen... He was too young to be her husband or brother...A son maybe...Evelyn immediately regretted having pestered him so much.

I´m sorry to hear that...In that case, I guess I should get going then..."

But just as she turned away, his resounding voice reached her hears and there was no more scorn in its tone. Only a very pristine seriousness.

"Wait a minute, Miss...I´sorry, you said your name was..?"

"Black. Evelyn Black." She relaxed and, for the first time, felt like she could have a normal conversation with the man "Mr... Snape, I assume?"

"Severus Snape..." He opened the door all the way and cocked his head back gesturing for her to come in.

Evelyn just stood there.

Wasn´t this what she wanted? Eileen Prince was dead, but this man...Severus Snape...Severus Snape was standing right before her, inviting her in.

She wasn´t sure yet, but Severus Snape might be the one she was looking for...The one who would help her make sense of her grandfather´s secrets.

So, she entered.


	3. Part 1-The Visit- Chapter 3

Chapter III

The front door opened into a small sitting room. As Evelyn expected, the room was pretty much like the sitting room of her own house in dimensions and just as dingy. Unlike her oddly well-decorated sitting room though, the dreary atmosphere at the Snapes house was compounded by the rather drab choice of furniture and colours. Everything was brown and sepia, and the scant décor seemed to be right out of a low-budget late 50s early 60s movie, with lots of odd trinkets scattered about. An old armchair in front of the cast iron fireplace fireplace was in dire need of reupholstering, as was the small dark russet leather couch in the middle of the room, and the rug was in even worst condition.

What did strike her, however, was the sheer amount of books. They covered every single wall from top to bottom, leaving almost no space empty. In fact there were so many of them, that it just looked as if they sprouted about like overgrown plants in an unkept garden. The shelves were full to the point of looking ready to collapse at any given moment; there were even books in the spaces in between the shelves, and other shelves mounted on the back of the doors in what looked like a conscious effort to make as many books as possible fit the tiny space available; those that didn´t fit the shelves piled up on the floor, on top of a couple of wobbly chairs and wherever else they could go. But chaotic organization notwithstanding, they were mostly in excellent condition, particularly the many leather-bound volumes.

Evelyn had spent most of her life in libraries, churches, abbeys and other morosely silent locations. It came with the job, really. But as she walked past Severus Snape and into his sitting room, the sound of her heels onto the floorboards cut through the heavy quietude inside in an almost otherworldly manner. Mr. Snape´s house had the atmosphere of a monastery, but conspicuously lacking the same feeling of beatific contemplation often found in them. His house just felt...sinister, somehow.

The door closed behind her with a dry thud. Completely ignoring the usual rituality most civilized people tend to observe when receiving a guest, Severus Snape merely walked around her, almost as if she wasn´t there, or was nothing but a little obstacle on his way, and headed the kitchen.

"Tea?" He asked, not even bothering to look her way.

"Sure, thank you... Uh, do you need any help?"

"No." came the laconic answer from beyond the door.

Evelyn puffed heavily, renouncing to any hope of having some form of normal interaction with him.

Sighing , she hung her coat on a wall hook by the door, noticing there were a couple of coats already there, all pitch black, and laid her purse on the couch. As she waited for her unwilling host to come back with the tea, and against her better judgement, she decided to look around. It was probably not wise to snoop around his house, but those magnificent rows of leather-bound books were too tantalizing to ignore. She quickly looked through some of the titles...Classics of Medieval literature she knew all too well...Chauncer, Dante, Mallory, Thomas Aquinas... Evelyn was overcome with amazement: it looked as if Mr. Snape had an exact replica of her own personal library... But there were lots of others she couldn´t recognize, authors she had never heard of gracing the spines of bizarrely titled books: "A History of Magic" by Bathilda Bangshot, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them" by Newt Scamander, "A guide to Medieval Sorcery"...It was just too strange...Evelyn had spend most of her academic life writing about European religions and Witchcraft, and yet she didn´t know any of these books... She wondered what Mr. Severus Snape did for a living; judging from these books he could very easily be a fellow historian.

Above the fireplace there were some framed diplomas, so she approached curiously, hoping to get a glimpse at his professional credentials. But instead her eyes were drawn to the picture frames on top of the mantle. There were just three of them. In the first one, a teenage girl with long dark hair, thick eyebrows and a sullen expression posed for what seemed to be an official school photo, faded golden calligraphic letters at the bottom of the photo read "Eileen Prince". So, finally a face for the name. The sharp features, the deep black eyes, the thin lips...If Evelyn had any doubt that Severus Snape was Eileen´s son it would have vanished as soon as she saw that portrait. He was the spit image of his mother. On the picture frame next to it, a very similar school photo, only this time of a boy. Evelyn didn´t have to read the golden letters on the bottom to know it was Severus Snape as a young man.

The third picture frame was slightly set apart from the others, almost as if purposely placed in such a way as to give it more prominence. In it, a scrawny boy, around nine or ten years old (Evelyn assumed it was Snape again) smiled brightly. He was holding hands with a beautiful red-haired little girl who smiled just as cheerfully, glowing in a flowered yellow dress. Resting against the elegant wooden picture frame, there was torn photo, with no frame, missing one half. A young woman with red hair, smiled, the exact same sweet smile of the little girl in the other photo. Only now Evelyn noticed a small glass vase with a solitary white lily in it, sitting right beside the photos of the red-haired child and woman...

Her train of thought was cut short by a loud coughing sound coming from behind her back. Startled, Evelyn yelped and spun around to see Severus Snape standing a mere couple of feet away from her, holding two steaming cups of tea. How the hell had the man just appeared like this? She didn´t hear any footsteps, had the bloody bastard just materialized out of thin air?

"Your tea" he said handing her one cup, an unabashed cavalier expression on his face "I only had Hassam. I hope it´s not to strong for you"

She took the cup, an elegant porcelain piece with a dainty green pattern of leaves around the edge, matching the saucer. Something that most likely had belonged to Eileen. The fragrant scent of good quality camellia sinensis reached her nostrils, soothing her somewhat as she tried to catch her breath.

"Hassam is just fine, thank you" She smiled, feeling herself blush with shame and irritation. Busted like a bloody schoolgirl.

Severus Snape just stood there, looking at her with that alarmingly arcane aplomb that seemed to come so naturally to him. At such a close distance, Evelyn had the chance to give him a good look. He was tall, probably around 6´or 6´1´´, but more than tall he was intimidating. It wasn´t as much as his height, as it was the way the carried himself. He was certainly imposing, and there was something almost stately about him, bordering on pretentious...The man was oddly angular, and made himself all the more so by standing as up-straight as a sentry during the changing of the Queen´s Guard. His movements were brisk and measured, with an unusual touch of elegance. His black trousers and black turtle-neck combined with his almost mechanical way of moving gave him the appearance of a large crow. That raven-like quality he exuded was only intensified by his sharp set of black eyes and very prominent hook nose. His dark, unkempt, shoulder-lenght hair made his sallow skin look dreadfully pale. Quite surprisingly, all these features combined didn´t make him exactly ugly, and although he was far from being good-looking, there was something almost magnetic there. Definitely not one who could be admired for his beauty, Severus Snape had something about his appearance that simply commanded attention.

After seemingly satisfying himself with how unconfortable he had just made her, he turned quickly on his heels and walked over to the armchair.

"I´m sorry, I was just..." Evelyn trailed off

"Sit down" He cut her mid speech, gesturing the sofa, as he sat on the armchair. Evelyn raised an eyebrow. He was, quite clearly, doing a little power game here; creeping up behind her, ordering her around, refraining from using the most simple formulas of politeness such as "thank you" or "please", sitting down before she did, purposely placing himself in an armchair that dominated the room, almost like a school headmaster in his office or a lord receiving her in his domain...It was quite clear Severus Snape liked to be in control, and wasn´t the kind of man to be easily confronted... So let´s just humour his ego, she thought to herself...

"Thank you" she forced herself to smile as modestly as possible, as she sat in front of him, sipping her tea... He might be an insufferable sourpuss, but truth to be told he did make excellent tea...

"So..." he started, obviously aiming to control the conversation, as he brought his own cup of tea to his lips. "You were looking for my mother... May I ask where would you know her from?"

"I wouldn´t, actually...Just by name. It´s a long story, really"

"Then make it short" He sneered

"Very well..." she continued, unfazed "The house next to yours. It belonged to my grandfather."

"I don´t recall anyone owning that house...or even living there, for that matter..."

"Precisely. I don´t think he ever did live there. After he passed away we found this among his belongings" Evelyn laid her cup down on the coffee-table and reached into her purse. She got a copy of a house deed and handed it to him. Severus unfolded it and read. He looked surprised for a moment.

"Marius Black..." a heavy pause "...your grandfather I suppose" His rich baritone had dropped a few octaves.

"Yes"

Severus sat silent for a while, almost as if contemplating something he didn´t care to share with her.

"Anyway." Evelyn carried on "It seems your house was once connected with my grandfather´s house. There were some documents and letters pertaining to a separation of the houses, probably following an inventory. It appears that my family and your mother´s family were related somehow, and the two houses were once a common property which was latter divided. I wouldn´t know the details of it, since most of my grandfather´s old papers are to old to be readable..."

Severus frowned.

"I think you must have something wrong... I would have known if my mother was related to..." he stopped mid-sentence. "I mean, I know my mother´s family and there´s certainly a mistake here... "

He rested his chin on the knuckles of his right hand.

"As far as I can remember, Miss Black...Not a soul has ever lived in the house next door. My mother never told me anything about it belonging to any of her relations"

"Maybe she didn´t know of the house´s history...The two properties were severed in the 20s. But still, she should know that her family was related to mine...You see, there´s a family tree amongst my father´s old documents, with your mother´s name on it. She would have known that, no?"

There was a long silence. For a second Evelyn could have sworn Severus looked apprehensive. But as she looked for a further hint of an expression on his face, he put on his default blank stare. Leaning back on his armchair, he drew in a deep breath.

"Once again, Miss Black I would have known that...But even assuming our families are somehow related, which I find highly unlikely...Is not like I can provide you with any information other than what your grandfather´s documents already have... I´m afraid your search has reached a dead end"

She fell silent. It was obvious that, whatever the relationship was between Eileen Snape and her family, Severus Snape knew nothing about it, or wouldn´t tell her about it.

"Where are you from Miss. Black?"

"Ireland. County Clare." She answered, taken aback by the random question.

"You see, my mother´s family didn´t have any relatives in Ireland"

"My grandfather wasn´t Irish. He was from London."

Severus blinked.

"He was?"

"Yes...He moved to Ireland when he was around twenty. Which is what makes the existence of this house all the more odd. It seems he lived all of his life in London. How could he have a house in Cokeworth?"

"Did he ever talk about any of it?"

"He never talked about anything that happened before he went to Ireland"

"Maybe for a good reason..."

"What do you mean?"

"Did you ever consider the very obvious possibility that he never talked about his past precisely because didn´t want anyone to know about it?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"What I´m trying to say is, Miss Black, I can´t help you. My mother is dead, as is your grandfather. What´s the point of digging up old stories?"

"The point?! Isn´t it obvious enough?...It´s my family we´re talking about here..."

"Precisely...Your family... Don´t you fear you might find something that was better left undiscovered?"


	4. Part 1- The Visit-Chapter 4

Severus wasn´t really sure why he had let her in. The mention of his mother´s name had certainly disarmed him at first, but come to think of it how could that woman possibly know about Eileen? The true Eileen Snape, the witch, not the long suffering wife of Tobias Snape, the neighbourhood´s drunk. Whatever it was this Evelyn Black had to talk to him about was probably just some trivial muggle matter...Maybe something to do with the numerous debts his mother had contracted trying to make ends meet and clean up after his father´s messes...Over the years he had gotten many of those visits, but his years working in Hogwarts and having very few personal expenses had allowed him the means to sort out the finances of the Snape family after his parents´ deaths. Luckily Gringotts made currency exchanges with muggle money.

Even so, that someone would look for her to collect a debt after twenty years of her passing was just a bit too bizarre... And that woman...Most definitely didn´t look like some ordinary debt collector. Too well-mannered, to the point of sounding a little posh, too well-dressed, too patrician-looking... And much to his surprise she seemed genuinely upset when he told her Eileen Prince was dead. Stranger still, she had just apologized and turned to leave, as if whatever it was that she had to discuss it could only be with Eileen herself. For a second he thought she might know his mother... But it was an absurd idea...Miss Black was around his own age...definitely too young to have known his mother while she was still "Eileen Prince".

Maybe the months he had spent cloistered in his old childhood home after the end of the war had finally started to take a tool on him. This was probably the first time since July he had had an actual conversation with another human being. Of course he got frequent letters from Minerva. After Voldemort´s defeat and his subsequent stay at St. Mungo Minerva seemed to have become overcome with remorse, in spite of all his reassurance that whatever it was that he had done, it was his choice, and apologies or displays of gratitude were simply out of place. Still he could understand her...Throughout his teaching years Minerva had probably been the closest thing to a friend he had had, and the whole affair of Dumbledore´s death, his apparent betrayal and near-passing, as well as the ensuing revelations about his double-agent activities, had certainly had a huge impact on her. To this day he got weekly letters from her, all filled with an almost apologetic concern about his well-being.

But letters couldn´t substitute a real interaction with another person. As antisocial as he had always been, sitting alone all day long in the decrepit Spinner´s End house for months on end was starting to weight heavily on him. As Evelyn Black stood on his doorstep he had felt something he hadn´t felt for months...Interest. Not interest on her per se, but interest on something... Curiosity, so to speak. Maybe that was why he had let her in. She might give him something to do with his time, even if only for the brief time span of an inconsequential conversation. Something to take him out of his hibernation for a moment.

She looked frankly nervous as she came in.

"Tea?" He offered, out of a flatly conventional sense of hospitality he hadn´t exercised in a long time. Having guests was definitely not at the top of the list of his favorite things to do.

"Sure, thank you... Uh, do you need any help?" She asked, offering him some polite proximity he didn´t really care for.

"No." His answer came out harsher than he intended... It didn´t matter much, really.

As he heated the water for the tea, he could hear her footsteps in the sitting room. He looked over his shoulder and saw as she moved around slowly looking at everything, almost as if visiting a museum, arms crossed over her chest, her deep red blouse in a stark contrast with the brownish grey-sepia rows of books that covered the walls. She had her back turned to him but he could see perfectly how upstraight he posture was, which made her look even taller, and how surely she walked around, with an elegant stride not many women managed on such high heels. Her hair ondulated ever so slightly as she looked up and down, obviously reading the titles on the bookspines. Even if he couldn´t see her face, her interest was palpable, he could read it on her body language...Either she was an avid bibliophile or was just trying to get to know something about him by analysing his personal library. Maybe both. As she approached the shelves closest to the fireplace she seemed to do a little double take and bent over as to see more carefully. Severus smirked...That was where he kept his old books from Hogwarts. No wonder she was curious, a muggle wouldn´t understand any of that. Time to put an end to her fun. He poured the tea not bothering with sugar and returned to the sitting room.

Her curiosity about his books hadn´t bothered him...Actually he was faintly amused by the way she was snooping around as if his sitting room was some public library. But when Severus entered the room she was standing just in front of the fireplace, almost on her tiptoes, staring at the photographs on the mantle with vivid interest. Severus frowned. Somebody obviously had a problem grasping the concept of "private". He walked over with that swift and silent gait he had practised over the years on the stone floors of Hogwats, and stoped just behind her, so close he could smell the faint lavender scent that emanated from her. Still, she was so fixated on the photos that she never noticed his presence. Severus coughed loudly to get her attention. She spun around and let out a small shrill like a startled cat. As she looked up at him, her eyes were wide and her face had turned a lovely shade of crimson red.

There it was, that delightful expression of absolute fear and sheer embarrassment he had so masterfully gotten out of busted students over the course of seventeen odd years as a teacher. It still felt good to see it. For whatever reason getting that out of a full grown woman felt even better.

"Your tea" He handed her the cup "I only had Hassam. I hope it´s not to strong for you"

"Hassam is just fine, thank you"

Severus stood there for a while, enjoying her subtle agitation. But after only a couple of seconds she seemed to have gathered her wits and started to look at him attentively, petulantly even, almost as if studying him. Her eyes were focused and deep. None of his students had ever had the nerve to look at him so shamelessly after being caught red-handed (except maybe the ever-insufferable Potter). Actually most adults didn´t have the nerve to stare at him like that. Severus was well aware that her peevishness was only due to the fact that she didn´t know who he was. Most muggles wouldn´t have had the courage if they knew...But still her gall was quite remarkable.

Time to stop playing little games. Severus turned around and walked over to his chair. From behind him her voice reached his hears, a calculated gentle intonation in the husky timbre.

"I´m sorry, I was just..."

"Sit down" He cut her mid-sentence, gesturing the sofa.

"Thank you" She smiled an obviously fake smile and sat down sipping her tea, apparently not minding that there was no sugar in it.

Miss Evelyn Black had, quite clearly, underestimated his intelligence. Did she really think he couldn´t see through the smiles and the kind little "pleases" and "thank yous"? She wanted something out of him, and was determined to get it, even if it meant playing the part of the "gentle sweet maiden". And "gentle sweet maiden" she was not, that much was clear to him. She was a terrible liar, though...her calculated words and inflexion might be meek and caressing, but the obstinate look in her eyes and the unabashed insistence that punctuated her actions told a different story. Still, he had to respect her determination to play him into doing her bidding. For such a poor liar, she seemed intelligent enough to know exactly how to play her cards...Certainly she had experience with making other people do what she wanted.

"So...You were looking for my mother... May I ask where would you know her from?"

"I wouldn´t, actually...Just by name. It´s a long story, really" There still playing the soft-spoken girl, Severus noticed, almost annoyed now.

"Then make it short" He sneered, hoping she would just drop the act and speak straightforwardly.

"Very well..." she continued, taking on a harder tone that pleased Severus a whole lot more "The house next to yours. It belonged to my grandfather."

"I don´t recall anyone owning that house...or even living there, for that matter..."

"Precisely. I don´t think he ever did live there. After he passed away we found this among his belongings" She laid her cup down on the coffee-table and reached into her purse. She then produced an old and crumbled piece of paper and handed it to him. Severus got it and ran his eyes through the elaborate calligraphy, doing a double take as he recognised the layout. It was an old muggle document, but with a layout style similar to that found on some wizarding documents, one that could be used on the wizarding legal procedures, while still being accepted by muggles, unaware of its origins. It was frequently used in negociations between muggles and wizards, whenever they took place. This one however looked quite old and had many elements that had fallen in disuse long ago, particularly the ornate borders and baroque-looking calligraphic capitals. Most of it was impossible to read and the stamps were nothing more than smudges, but the name of the owner and his elegant signature were clear enough: Marius Black.

"Marius Black..." That name...it did ring a bell...But where had Severus heard it before? "...your grandfather I suppose"

"Yes"

"Anyway." Evelyn carried on "It seems your house was once connected with my grandfather´s house. There were some documents and letters pertaining to a separation of the houses, probably following an inventory. It appears that my family and your mother´s family were related somehow, and the two houses were once a common property which was latter divided. I wouldn´t know the details of it, since most of my grandfather´s old papers are to old to be readable..."

Severus frowned. Clearly she had stumbled onto something she shouldn´t have. If that document had anything to do with a transaction between wizards and muggles (a transaction that seemed to have happened many decades ago) and her family had any connection to his mother´s family as she claimed, she should have know something about it. But quite obvious she didn´t. Whatever it was that this document meant, it was not for her to know. Furthermore, her having that paper and Merlin only knew whatever else she had found among her late grandfather´s belongings could mean a high risk of breaking the statute of secrecy.

"I think you must have something wrong... I would have known if my mother was related to..." Related to "muggles" he almost let slip, but bit his tongue. "I mean, I know my mother´s family and there´s certainly a mistake here..."

He rested his chin on the knuckles of his right hand, making an effort to come up with something to throw her off her trail.

"As far as I can remember, Miss Black...Not a soul has ever lived in the house next door. My mother never told me anything about it belonging to any of her relations" Severus almost kicked himself, feeling dumb as a post. Was that the best he could come up with? The months of isolation must have dulled his legendarily sharp mind.

"Maybe she didn´t know of the house´s history...The two properties were severed in the 20s. But still, she should know that her family was related to mine...You see, there´s a family tree amongst my father´s old documents, with your mother´s name on it. She would have known that, no?"

There was a long silence. Severus simply sat there mulling over that story. He couldn´t quite make sense of it. Indeed he had never heard any mention to the house next door belonging to anyone. Neither had him ever heard of anyone on the pure-blood Prince family being related to any muggles. But then again if his mother had married a muggle it wasn´t impossible that other members of the family might have muggle relations. Still without getting the full picture, he had no way of knowing anything, and all he had to go on was that house deed and Evelyn´s story...

But what really got to him was the fact that the woman sitting in front of him was completely unaware of what the house deed could mean. Clearly Evelyn Black had no idea of the connection her house might or might not have to the wizarding world... Her grandfather had clearly decided not to let his family know of that house and, consequently, anything, magical or not, that might be related to it. And yet, decades after the signing of that house deed, his granddaughter was there holding on to that piece of paper that could lead her to uncovering everything. And if the Wizarding world had anything to do with whatever this "everything" was, there would be trouble.

"Once again, Miss Black I would have known that...But even assuming our families are somehow related, which I find highly unlikely...Is not like I can provide you with any information other than what your grandfather´s documents already have. I´m afraid your search has reached a dead end" Indeed he couldn´t provide her with any information, that much was true. But somehow he just felt that excuse wouldn´t be enough to keep her from investigating.

"Where are you from, Miss Black?" He let out, grasping at straws, trying to extract any potentialy useful information out of her.

"Ireland. County Clare." She answered, looking a little taken aback.

"You see, my mother´s family didn´t have any relatives in Ireland" He said just for the sake of saying anything. He knew she was Irish, and the new information she gave him, about County Clare didn´t add much to it, but he had to keep her talking.

"My grandfather wasn´t Irish. He was from London."

"He was?"

"Yes...He moved to Ireland when he was around twenty. Which is what makes the existence of this house all the more odd. It seems he lived all of his life in London. How come would he have a house in Cokeworth?"

"Did he ever talk about any of it?"

"He never talked about anything that happened before he went to Ireland"

"Maybe for a good reason..." Severus said, more to himself than to her.

"What do you mean?"

"Did you ever consider the very obvious possibility that he never talked about his past precisely because didn´t want anyone to know about it?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"What I´m trying to say is, Miss Black, I can´t help you. My mother is dead, as is your grandfather. What´s the point of digging up old stories?"

"The point?! Isn´t it obvious enough?...It´s my family we´re talking about here..."

"Precisely...Your family... Don´t you fear you might find something that was better left undiscovered?"

She looked at him square in the eyes, a look of self-righteous indignation splattered on her face.

"Excuse me? What are you trying to get at?"

Severus almost smiled. Just a few minutes ago she was sitting there, feigning gentleness, trying to manipulate him with sugar-coated words and batting eyelashes, but at the slightest suggestion that her little world might not be as perfect as she imagined it to be, she had just let her emotions flow with laughable ease. Leaning forward, Severus rested his elbows on his knees interlacing his fingers, and tried to give his next words the kindest, most comforting tone he could muster.

"I don´t mean to be offensive, Miss Black, and I apologize if I was. What I wanted to say is... I imagine your late grandfather might have had strong reasons not to share this information with his family. Maybe you should just respect his wishes and not pursue this."

"I appreciate your concern, Mr. Snape, but I really don´t think it´s your place to decide that " Every single word out of her mouth was dripping with contempt.

"Of course not."

"Well, in that case" She grabbed her purse and stood up. Severus stood up almost in time with her "I guess I should get going. It obvious you can´t help me."

"I´m terribly sorry about that"

"Don´t be. I should be the one apologizing for wasting your time" She turned on her heels swiftly and went for her coat on the wall hook. Severus followed her closely, and walked past her as she headed for the door.

"Once again...I´m sorry I couldn´t help you" He opened the door for her. "But, if I may say so, do consider what I just told you"

"I will" Severus just knew she wouldn´t.

"And..." She turned to him, her foot barely out the door "If there´s anything else I can do to help you...Don´t hesitate in asking me"

"That´s kind of you...But I don´t think you´ll be able to do much to help me" She had a suspicious expression on her face...Indeed this woman was anything but stupid...And that only concerned him all the more.

"Still...I´ll see if I can find out anything that might help you. I´ll let you know if I do" He measured every word in order to make it sound gentle but not too sweet or too interested

As he closed the heavy wooden door behind him, Severus Snape smiled to himself.

Finally he had found something interesting to do with his time.


	5. Part 2- The Cat -Chapter 1

Chapter I

Severus couldn´t even remember the last time he had slept. Actual sleep, that is. A peaceful night of sound, restoring sleep. His brain shut down at times, when the body couldn´t take being awake anymore, but even then...To sleep...to rest...No more...Not since the late Albus Dumbledore had dropped the weight of the world onto his shoulders without ever wondering if he would be able to carry it.

Dumbledore was not the nice old man for whom so many took him... He was man of action, a man who did what had to be done, no matter what the cost. "For the greater good" was his motto. Severus respected that. He had long given up any ideals of a fair world where good triumphs over evil simply because that´s the way it´s supposed to be...More often than not, the "greater good" demanded sacrifice, blood, tears and less than noble actions...Sometimes things simply got ugly, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Hard facts of life... Severus Snape had made his peace with them long before that night. Which was precisely why, even after all this time, he still couldn´t understand how Dumbledore´s plan had brought him to his knees like that.

Seventeen years before that Severus had given up everything. His life, his peace, his strentgh...He had laid everything at Dumbledore´s feet, had turned himself over to be used like a pawn. He had agreed to it...more than that, he had asked for it. Lily´s death left him no purpose other than continuously repenting for what couldn´t be fixed or forgiven. Following Dumbledore´s plans had become his sole reason to exist. To keep the boy alive...to keep whatever was left of Lily on this Earth alive...Until it came the day when he could finally rest...If the prophecy was right the day would come when Lily´s son would defeat Voldemort...through Lily´s son Severus Snape would finally find redemption... He waited for that day... For seventeen years he waited for that day...He did whatever it was in his power to make sure it would come.

Then everything came crumbling down... The boy had to die...Dumbledore had asked him to protect Lily´s son, just to have him dead at the right moment... "He has her eyes"...He said...That was probably the only thing that had kept Severus alive all these years...Knowing her eyes still saw the world through her child... And then, casually like that, Dumbledore told him those eyes would no longer see the light... Lily´s only child...raised like a pig for slaughter...with his help.

Severus was never quite certain as to whether Dumbledore didn´t realise the enormity of what he asked or if he simply didn´t care...Maybe Dumbledore himself didn´t know...He simply charged forward, doing whatever it took for everything to fall into place...and Severus had to keep up...On the day of Lily´s death, Severus Snape had given up his life, his happiness... Had given up himself, in a way...He had no right to claim his soul back, when he had lost it so long ago...And yet, Dumbledore asked entirely too much of him... To soil his hands with blood...Dumbledore´s own blood no less, and with those same blood-stained hands hold on to the helm, step into Dumbledore´s own shoes and keep Hogwarts safe under the attack of the birds of prey that swiftly descended upon it...and lead Lily´s child to his ultimate fate, like a priest leads a lamb to the sacrificial altar.

And once everything was said and done, all there was left to him was to hope for forgiveness that would never come...Too much, simply too much...

As he lay bleeding on the filthy floor of the Shrieking Shack, there was a moment of relief.

Over...finally over...to sleep, at last... He had fought it...Once he felt the first bite of Nagini´s teeth sinking into his flesh, he had fought it. But he had been caught entirely off-guard, let go of his wand, and the beast was just too strong, too fast and Severus too weak and broken. Like a wounded animal he recoiled, moaned, struggled...In foolish desperation he had tried to pry the mighty jaws open with both his hands, only managing to break his fingers... The attack was relentless...In the midst of the pain all he could think of was his incomplete mission...After seventeen years, he had failed...at the last moment he had failed...

Then he simply lay there, all energy drained from his body...warm blood soaking his robes, his consciousness slipping away from him with each drop...He waited for the jaws to come back and finish what had been started... Charity Burbage´s death still lingered in the back his mind, the haunting sounds of her bones breaking as Nagini feasted upon her body still echoed into his ears. He had watched, powerless to prevent it...and now it was his turn. But all he heard was the ruffling of the Dark Lord´s robes and the slithering sound of Nagini following her master, as he was left for dead.

Laying on the floor... bleeding his life out... Knowing with his last shred of consciousness that everything was lost... But even then he felt the most bizarre sense of relief...At least it was over...he could rest... Redemption had been denied to him...but sleep...just sleep...If there was anything like a God in heaven He wouldn´t deny him that...

Right at that moment he had been pulled out of his feverish reverie by a voice... a pair of deep emerald green eyes looking at him, filled with horror, sorrow... pity? Harry...Lily´s boy...all these years he had tried to see it...to look for her eyes in his, and yet he had never really seen it as clearly as now... His hope had never been in vain...peace would come to him...everything he had been asked to do, he would have accomplished...just as long as he made Harry see it, with his own eyes...Those green eyes...Lily´s eyes...they would see it...they would see everything he had always wanted them to see...

His task was complete...peace at last...sleep...

But even that had been denied to him...When he woke up, weeks later, at St Mungo´s, the light of a new day pouring from the open window, confirming his existence, hurt his soul more than the unhealed, infected wounds pained his body.

It wasn´t supposed to be like this...

Sleep...it was all he had asked for...

Severus simply lay on his bed, after yet another night of tossing and turning with eventual black-outs filled with nightmares. He had seen from the corner of his eye as the lights of a grey, foggy, autumn morning cut through the black veil of the night. He watched as the white milky glow entered his room, little by little, flowing lazily, drawing ample patterns on the ceiling... He watched in silence, entirely too incapable of doing anything else other than lay there, motionless. The spectre of light moved in front of his eyes for hours before he mustered the strength to look up at the clock.

09 o´clock...

Severus dragged himself out of bed, his back aching from being too long on the same position...He closed the windows, rubbing his bloodshot eyes and welcoming the darkness back, then finally decided that, since the days stubbornly refused to stop going by, it was probably better to keep busy in the meantime...somehow...

Caffeine...that was what he needed...tea or coffee...whatever...

He welcomed the cold as he walked into the kitchen. The cool tiles felt like ice under his bare feet, and the breeze that made it´s way into the broken window felt gelid against his skin, barely protected by the worn out grey pajamas. The cold was almost painful, the warmth of the bed covers still lingering all over his body. It didn´t matter much...Lately the only thing that made him feel somewhat alive was pain...The wounds on his neck still hurt most of the time, and his left hand had never quite recovered...Probably shouldn´t be making such liberal use of anaesthetic potions.

Tea...a warm cup of tea would make him feel somewhat human again. After lighting up a cigarette, Severus reached for the tin box on the counter, just to find it empty. But of course...he had used the last bags of Assam left to make tea the day before...When that nosy Miss Black had visited him... He had almost forgotten about her...Lately he just kept forgetting things... And his mind was so blurry from the ill-slept night that the bizarre conversation he had had with his new neighbour the previous day just felt dream-like like it had never happened...

Bloody hell, he really needed caffeine...

"There´s still instant coffee in here somewhere" he muttered to himself as he rummaged through the cabinets, no mustering enough concentration to simply use a summoning spell. As he opened cabinet door after cabinet door, a soft mewling sound made its way into his ears...

At first he thought nothing of it, but soon enough the noise had started to grate into his nerves...Was it his imagination or the mewling was actually getting louder?

He turned to leave the kitchen and look for something heavy to throw at the damned stray cat that was, most likely, messing up the trash cans outside. Then he saw it...a small black silhouette laying in front of his fire place. It turned around and in the dim light of the living room he saw a pair of bright amber eyes staring straight at him.

So that´s why the noise was so close...

"How did it ever..." Severus looked around and the answer became obvious...The broken window on the kitchen... Meanwhile, the cat leisurely approached, mewling softly to get his attention, and started to rub against his leg. Severely annoyed by now ,Severus picked it up, ready to toss it outside the door when he realized it: this cat was no stray... It was obviously well fed, and its black coat was so shiny it looked blueish under the light...it also had a collar with a shamrock-shaped name tag on it. As the little beast made itself comfortable, purring agains this chest, Severus examined the tag.

"Ciarán...If you find me call,...Evelyn B..." he rolled his eyes "Well, well...Cats...the ultimate staple of the obnoxious, over-thirty spinster...Why doesn´t it surprise me at all?"


	6. Part 2- The Cat -Chapter 2

Chapter II

"Well, Ciarán...or whatever you name is... you found your way here, you should have no trouble finding your way back"

Severus fought the urge to simply toss the cat out the window. True to be told it would be rather satisfying to just kick the insolent furball out and watch as it ran away terrified. But considering his owner was his new neighbor, it would probably be more prudent to just show him the way out. Miss Black was petulant and intrusive enough as it was, mistreating her cat would only bring him more annoyance, and quite frankly he was in no shape to deal with it.

So instead of indulging on his more aggressive urges, Severus merely opened the kitchen to and let the cat out. It sat there on the windowsill for a few moments and left, making him breath a sight of relief...

Where was he, again? Oh, yeah...Cofee...

Alas..no coffee, and no tea...Actually, no nothing...When was the last time he had gone grocery shopping?...Hell, he couldn´t even remember...Might want to take care of that now...Starving to death was not a very noble way to go...Dying of starvation and having his body discovered weeks later once it started to smell wouldn´t look too good on his obituary...Death by snake attack would have been more decent. But the mere thought of washing, changing into presentable clothes and going out to run such a mundane task bore him to death...

Grudgingly he washed, changed and left.

Two hours...Two bloody hours just to walk to the nearest market, pick up a few bare essentials, pay for them and come back home...Damn... He knew muggles had a different way of life, and that not having magic entailed a certain difficulty of getting things done that was unknown to wizards, but that was effin´ridiculous...Nobody need magic to know how to properly queue or change money...

Severus locked the door and kicked off his shoes. Tea and a decent meal...Finally...

"What?..." He almost dropped the grocery bags as he felt something touching his leg. He looked down and saw pair of big amber eyes looking up at him. In the dimness of the living room it was almost impossible to see clearly, but he didn´t have to see it to know exactly what the diminutive creature trying to climb up his leg was. "You again?"

Cursing through his teeth, Severus let go of the bags and picked the cat up by the scruff of the neck, nearly tossing it outside the door. Dear Merlin, was Miss Black so intent on getting on his nerves she had trained her cat to annoy him? He slammed the door shut and headed the kitchen as the cat stood outside mewling and scratching the door.

"Damn cat..."

Trying his best to ignore the noise outside, he proceeded heat up a frozen meal. Luckily he was awake enough now to use his wand. For the life of him he would never reach an agreement with that old rusty stove in the kitchen. Opening the metalic container, he reached for a fork inside one of the kitchen cabinets and sat down to eat his undercooked Salisbury steak and bland macaroni and cheese with a side of nicotine.

Then the mewling and scratching finally stopped.

"Peace at last!" Severus mumbled to himself, welcoming the silence. Silence...his constant companion for months...Lately even the sound of his own thoughts had become unbearable to him at times... silence was all he could take...It was the closest to non-existence he could get... The sounds of his house, book pages turning, the kettle on the stove, the click-clack of glasses and silverware, the ruffling of his bedsheets...That was all he could bear without having a bloody migraine...

Damn it, his wounds hurt more than usual today...Maybe the dressing was too tight...Should check up on that after lunch...For now he´d just have to mind it when swallowing...Couldn´t very well go for another round of anaesthetics right now, had taken those before leaving the house...The cigarette would have to do as far as calming his nerves for now..

Morosely poking his steak with the fork as he watched the tip of his cigarette burn, Severus started to plan the day ahead of him. If anything the little black invader had, at least, helped him become alert enough to catch up on his reading. His teaching left him very little time for any kind of parallel intellectual pursuit...And with the business of having a bloody war to tend to, he couldn´t quite remember the last time he had sat down with a book for the simple pleasure of just reading an interesting story. Last time he had tried he didn't have the chance to reach the third chapter...

Just as he silently agreed with himself that the rest of the day would be better spent in Dostoyevisky´s fine company, Severus felt something touch his bare feet. Something furry... Severus bolted to his feet, just as the lean little silhouette walked from under the table and sat down on its hind legs, looking up at him.

"That´s it!" Severus was fuming. "I suppose I need to have a word with your owner about responsible pet-owning and common civility!"

Fighting the urge to hex the living lights out of cat, he picked it up and marched to the next house of the street. He banged on the door, probably with enough strength to yank it out of its hinges. Nothing... He tried again and again...nothing. Apparently nobody was home...

"So that´s why you snuck out..." He looked at the cat purring happily on his arm. "All right then..."

Severus had just noticed one of the front windows was partiality open. He carefully placed the cat on the windowsill and nudged him to enter. The animal merely looked up at him, seriously and mewled softly. Severus tried to make him go inside, to no avail. The cat looked inside the house then back at him and simply sat there, almost as if it couldn´t bring itself to enter.

"What the devil?..."

After a couple more futile attempts at making the cat get back inside, Severus simply stood in front of the window, wondering what could ever make the animal so reluctant to get back into his own home. Considering Miss Black had just moved, maybe the cat wasn´t yet used to the new environment, although it was obviously very comfortable at his house. Nevermind, he tought, could just as well just leave the creature there on the windowsill...

As Severus walked away, he could hear the diminutive beast mewling following him. He didn´t really have to look back to know it was right after him. Stubborn little...Reaching his doorstep, Severus looked over his shoulder, and surely enough there was the cat, sitting on the side walk.

Accepting defeat, Severus opened his door and stepped aside, as the cat leisurely strolled in.

It was the tenth time he had to go back and re-read the same page. The damn cat had been prancing about, hoping on the piles of books scattered about the floor, climbing up the shelves and dropping whatever object it could get its little filthy paws on. At the present moment it hd just finished smashing a glass of water on the floor and was proceeding to menacingly make its way towards the antique wooden clock sitting on one of the shelves by the fireplace.

Closing his copy of The Bothers Karamazov, Severus walked up to where the little insolent fur ball was and proceeded to remove him from the shelf. It merely jumped from his arms onto the floor and walked over to the fireplace, lying lazily in front of it. Severus took a deep breath.

"Ok, so be like this." The cat simply looked at him and yawned.

The cat was tired of wrecking havoc, apparently. Good. Back to his book, then. Hopefully he´d get to finish that page now. But just as he sat down, there it was again...The bloody cat mewling at his feet. Without taking his eyes off the book, Severus pushed it away with a foot, but the unbearable creature would have none of it. It just leaped squarely onto his lap.

"I´m not petting you, damnit!" And back to the floor it went, mewling in dismay. Only this time it made no attempt to climb back. Instead it just sat quietly, as if listening for something.

"What now?"

Seemingly no longer interested on Severus, the cat walked briskly towards the door. Soon enough it was scratching it and mewling anxiously.

"Oh, so now you want to leave...Fine..."

Relieved, Severus opened the door and let the cat out. It sat on the pavement and looked on as a red Volvo approached. The car pulled over right in front of Miss Black´s house, and the cat mewled joyfully as none other than Evelyn Black herself exited the auto. Severus watched as the woman distractedly opened the trunk of her car and started to retrieve a mountain of shopping bags and grocery bags from it. Her high heels made a pleasant and regular little click-clacking rhythm onto the pavement as her dark jeans, red sweater coat and red crochet headband painted dynamic brushstrokes of bright colour onto the dull grey canvas of Spinner´s End.

"Well, there she is, at long last..." Severus crossed his arms over his chest and turned to go back inside. The cat, however, stayed exactly where it was, looking up at him.

"Just go already! She´s back." The cat mewled, still looking up at him.

"You don´t want me to escort you, do you?" Another mew. Scowling, Severus picked up the cat carried him on one arm as carefully as he would carry a stale baguette, slamming his front door behind himself. "Miserable little runt"

He walked up to Miss Black just as she was starting to unlock her door.

"Hey!" He yelled curmudgeonly, making her turn around, startled.

"Yes?"

"Is this yours?" He asked, carelessly holding up the cat.

"Ciarán!" She dropped the bags and almost ran up to him, taking the cat from his hand and gently cradling it on her arms, showering the little pest with caresses. "You were sleeping when I left, how did you get out?"

Severus rolled his eyes. Crazy woman talking to her bloody cat as if it was a baby...

"Thank you so much for finding him" She smiled at Severus, her Irish accent becoming slightly ticker.

"I didn´t find him...he found me."

"Oh, I see...I´m so sorry he bothered you...In any case, thank you for taking care of him while I was out"

You should thank me for not turning him into a stew; Severus thought to himself, but kept his silence and just nodded.

"Why don´t you come in for some tea?" She offered, opening the door.

"No, it´s not necessary"

"I insist..."

"I mean it, it´s really no nece.."

Without as much as letting him finish the sentence, Evelyn put the cat back on the ground, and picked up the grocery backs she had just dropped.

"It will only take a minute. If you could just help me with these bags" Not even noticing (or not minding) his resistance, she handled him the bags and walked over to her car. "We can just put those in the kitchen and I´ll fix us something to eat in a second. I just bought some muffins on this new bakery downtown, people say they are excellent..."

As she continued to babble and pull shopping bags out of the trunk of the car, Severus stood there like a fool holding one shopping bag on each hand, completely at a loss of words...


	7. Part 2- The Cat -Chapter 3 (End)

Chapter III

If the old popular wisdom that dictated that pets were much like their owners in personality was correct, there was no point arguing with Miss Black, Severus thought to himself. Much in the same way her cat simply did as it pleased, it was quite obvious Miss Black wouldn´t take no for an answer. Just as well, if anything her impromptu hospitality fit would provide him with an excellent opportunity to gather information. Just the day before Evelyn Black had knocked on his door, telling a most bizarre story that apparently involved his mother´s family and could just as well touch the Wizarding World. According to her she had just inherited her house from her late grandfather, who was, if she was to be believed, somehow related to the Prince family. Stranger still, Evelyn Black was in possession of a strange house deed, a document of a type most common in wizarding transactions. Inadvertently her bothersome black cat had provided him with a perfect opportunity to look into that matter.

But carrying shopping bags was not his idea of investigating. Nevermind, a little common courtesy would go a long way in helping his plans.

"Can you put those on the kitchen table, please" She told him, while clumsily taking bag after bag from the trunk. It was quite evident a lot of those were not just groceries and obviously too heavy to for her to carry unaided. He balanced the two relatively small grocery bags she had just given him on his left hand, doing his best to hold on to them with his still fully functioning fingers and walked over to where she stood. Silently, and without as much as looking at her, Severus picked up the heavier bags, balancing them on both hands to the best of his ability and marched into the house. A little startled, Evelyn picked up the other bags and closed the trunk, following him.

"Oh, wait..." she called out, coming after him, her heels briskly click-clacking onto the pavement. "It´s too heavy, you don´t have to carry all of them at the same ti..."

"I can manage" he spat out. If there was one thing Severus couldn´t stand was pity disguised as politeness.

They made their way into the living room just as Ciarán was climbing onto the peach colored damask couch, stretching lazily before settling for a nap. Severus scoffed at him as he walked by. Finally catching up to him, Evelyn walked past both of them and prompted Severus to follow her into the kitchen.

"Could you put those here, please" She told him softly, gesturing a cabinet next to the door. Then she washed her hands and started to move around, busy like a hyperactive bee, sorting groceries and putting them away and filling up a kettle with water. "Have a seat...tea will be ready in a minute...I have green tea and Lady Grey, what do you..."

"I´ll just have whatever you´re having..." He answered distractedly, walking back into the living room. There was a strong smell of cleaning products in the air, and the furniture was moved around and cardboard boxes were scattered about.

"Don´t mind the mess," she told him from the kitchen, her voice dancing over the clatter of porcelain and silverware. "I still haven´t had to time to finish cleaning..."

He didn´t answer and just kept walking around. There was no way Miss Black had brought all these objects with her and had them brought inside in less than twenty-four hours. The living room was fully decorated in a sumptuous Art Déco style, with lots of delicate and ornate pieces and works of art, with a soothing abundance of muted greens and pale pinks. Draperies, upholstering, rugs, everything looked vivid and fresh...as if the house had just been decorated. The sheer amount of stained glass letting the light pour inside, the scattered boxes, apparently filled with books and personal objects, and the smell of lime from the recent, yet unfinished, cleaning only added to the fresh, comfortable feel of a house ready to start a new life.

Severus walked over to the boxes, all already opened, but still unpacked. The personal objects didn´t interest him, and he would feel outright ashamed looking at them, so instead he directed his attention to the books. The absolute majority of the boxes were filled with them, making up for a personal library of rather respectable size. Letting his curiosity get the best of him he opened one and picked up the first book his eyes fell upon. It was a rather new and elegant hard cover edition with a very high quality dark green dust jacket. On it there was a very simple black design of a Celtic cross and a title in a sleek and elegant black lettering "Witch trials in Ireland: the untold history" He read the index and saw the book was divided on groups of specific trials by dates, spawning all the way from the XIV century to, much to his surprise, 1911. The last pages had an exhaustive compilation of references and bibliography. Looked like a book worth reading, he thought, looking for the name of the author on the cover.

"Author...Evelyn Black?" Severus did a bit of a double take and opened the book again, looking for the flap. There it was. A rather elegant black and white portrait of Evelyn black, looking positively scholarly in a dark blouse, her hair pulled away from her face in a neat braid. The seriousness of her face seemed to belie an inner sunnier disposition that could be seen from the brightness of her eyes, that the dull shades of grey chosen for the photo did nothing to diminish, and the hint of an impending smile that her tightly sealed lips did a poor job of hiding.

Severus looked over his shoulder to where she stood, distractedly setting the table. He followed her swift and agile movements, as her long fingers busied themselves with cups and plates, knives, forks and the most colourful array of breads, cheeses and muffins. She was completely relaxed, her red sweater laying abandoned on the back of a chair and her immaculate white t-shirt reflecting the light in a way rather unusual for the dull and dark Spinner´s End, forming a striking contrast with her dark hair, in such a way that her face looked far softer and more radiant than he remembered it from the previous day. Hard to imagine that sweet tea-and-muffins, happy go lucky model-home-maker prototype busily arranging muffins on a glass tray was a witchcraft expert. But then again, considering their previous conversation, Severus wouldn´t be at all surprised to find a higher than average intelligence in her. More than intelligence, if the whole story about her grandfather and her adamant pursuit of answers was anything to go by, Miss Black didn´t only have brains, but she might just as well have the officiousness to match. Brains and curiosity, the mark of an outstanding scholar. Still, he had to laugh at the notion that a muggle would actually study witchcraft... as if they could do anything other than scratch the surface.

"Tea is ready" she called out softly. He put the book back in the box and went into the kitchen. There he found a simple but nicely arranged table set, cups and plates of refined powder blue porcelain, cold cuts and cheese, some croissants arranged in a little basket and the famous muffins, apparently in variety flavours. He wondered if it was just because she had a guest or if Evelyn Black actually made a ritual out of every meal.

"Sit down, please..." She poured him some tea. "Lady Grey... I´m sorry I didn't have Assam..."

"It´s ok."

"Once again forgive me about Ciarán..." She took his plate and proceeded to put some slices of cheese on it, without as much as asking him if he wanted it.

"Miss Black, please. Just the tea is quite enough"

"Oh, but you must try this. You know, I walked all over the neighbourhood looking for some place that sold good Irish cheese, but alas there doesn´t seem to be a wide variety of products avaible around here. Such luck I found this Burren Gold. It´s produced in Clare, you must try it..."

"No, really, please, don´t bother..." He was starting to get slightly alarmed as she served him a croissant and a muffin.

"Chocolate or blueberry?"

"I don´t really like swe..." he breathed in trying not to get angry "...blueberry"

"I wish I had something fresher to serve, but I was so busy with the cleaning that baking was out of question. I hope those are good. I heated them up a bit. Would you like some butter?"

"No, thank you. It´s all perfectly fine like this..." Severus studied her jovial expression as she sat down and proceeded to fill her own plate. She was simply "at home", in every sense of the expression. Whomever was to walk in at that exactly moment and saw them having tea and discussing Irish cheese and muffin flavours might actually mistake them for old friends, instead of neighbours that had met just the day before. The familiarity was completely disturbing to him, this little chit chat over afternoon tea was simply too surreal...He felt like he had just walked into one of those obnoxious domestic-bliss-selling margarine commercials. He wondered if the woman sitting across the table was actually this genuinely nice and welcoming or if she was just plain crazy.

"As I was saying...I´m really sorry about Ciarán. He´s not used to being left alone. My last boyfriend worked from home, so Ciarán really misses having someone around...I do think I´ve been babying the little fellow a bit too much lately. I hope he hasn´t disturbed you too much..." Her brogue was more evident than ever now.

"Not too much, no..." He lied. "Your...uhm...decoration is quite interesting."

"It´s not mine, actually. Everything was already here when I arrived. But I´m thinking about keeping it just the way it is. It´s absolutely lovely. But it was the most bizarre thing to find everything untouched like that. Except for all the dust it looks as if it was decorated yesterday, doesn´t it?"

"I´d say so..." he cocked an eyebrow, looking around.

"But the most bizarre thing is not even that..."

"Yes?..." He offered, amazed at how little it took to get her talking.

"There was no sign of bugs anywhere..."

"Indeed? That´s funny...this house has been closed for so long...One would imagine it was crawling with bugs."

"I know, right? And yet not a single one...I´m telling you, it´s the most amazing thing. This house is in such perfect condition is actually scary. I was fully expecting to have to spend some nights at a hotel while arranging everything to move in, and it wasn´t even necessary. Yesterday all I had to do was change the covers and I had a perfect night of sleep in one of the bedrooms upstairs...I do admit it was a little creepy sleeping in this bed that once belonged to God only knows who..."

"Well, if you intend to live in Spinner´s End, 'creepy' is something you might want to get used to..." he smirked

"I guess so..." she laughed softly

"I do imagine that for someone in your line of work, stumbling upon this house must be fascinating..."

"My line of work?..."

"You´re a historian, right? I just happened to see one of your books in the living room."

"Oh, you did..." she smiled and for a second he could have sworn she was a little embarrassed

"Yes...Witch trials in Ireland...Sounds interesting..."

"I did notice the subject seems to interest you...I mean, once again sorry for snooping around but..."

"Don´t worry...I suppose we can call that one even"

"Well, and judging from your library I´d guess we share the same line of work..."

"You´d guess incorrectly.."

"So, not a historian?"

"Teacher"

"What subject?"

"Potions." he let out with a straight face, savouring her utterly puzzled expression.

"Potions?...Oh, you mean chemistry." She laughed quietly.

"Yes." he smirked again.

"Then my guess was only partially incorrect..."

"How so?"

"We´re both teachers...just different subjects"

"Well, yes..."

"Where do you teach?"

"A boarding school in Scotland." he shifted uncomfortably in his chair "I´m currently on leave of absence due to injury, tough."

"I see..." She said in an almost apologetic tone. He followed her eyes as they looked down at the bandages on his neck and his crippled left hand. He removed his hand from the table, resting it on his lap, and shifted again. She immediately noticed his discomfort and looked down at her tea, silent.

"You?" He asked, trying to pull her back into the conversation.

"Oh, here and there...I graduated from Trinity College, got my Ph.D. there as well, then worked there for most of my life. I went back to Doolin after my grandfather passed away. I lived in Ennis for a while before that and worked at the National school, but I preferred to go back to Doolin...My father was teacher in a local school there. An all girl school I attended, so that´s where I was working past few years..."

"How long has it been since he passed away? Your grandfather I mean..."

"Two years...My father followed him just this year..." All the brightness of her voice was gone.  
"I´m sorry to hear that"

Suddenly all her chattiness disappeared and the only sound filling the air was that of the tea cups clattering and the chilly wind blowing the leaves outside. For the first time in months Severus felt bothered by the silence he usually welcomed with such joy. He looked down at his partially eaten croissant, sipping his tea and calculating his next words. But before he could open his mouth Evelyn herself broke the tension.

"It was only when father died that I got those papers I was telling you about yesterday...I knew they existed before that, but for whatever reason, dad never let anybody near them. They just spend two years locked up inside this box in the attic..."

"Yes, you mentioned it...As a matter of fact, I probably should apologize for our last conversation, we seem to have started on the wrong foot..." Severus was pleasantly surprised that he didn´t have to bring up the subject himself. In fact Miss Black seemed all too eager to talk about it. He modulated his voice to the gentlest tone he could muster "I was really taken by surprise. You will certainly understand, a person I´ve never seen before standing at my doorstep, telling this convoluted story about an abandoned house..."

"Oh, of course I completely understand...I suppose I was a little too eager, knocking on your door like that and just spilling everything..." Her tone was at once mellow and serious, and Severus wondered if she was genuinely opening up to him, or just trying to charm him into helping her. Either way it suited his purposes. "It´s just that...It´s all so strange, this house, these papers, this whole part of my grandfather´s life we had no idea about..."

"As I said before, I don´t think you´ll discover all that much...You said it yourself, it has been a long time, and with both your father and grandfather dead, I don´t think..."

"You do understand why I have to try, don´t you?" Her eyes bore straight into his to the point of discomfort. It was obvious there was much more to this than a simple curiosity about her family´s history. But whatever her reasons were they were of no interest to him at the moment and he surely wasn´t about to use legilimency on a defenceless muggle to find out.

"I do...Would you mind if I took a look at those papers? Maybe something there might help..."

"Well, of course you can...I´ll go get them..."

She left the kitchen and walked towards a sleek wooden cabinet in the living room. Severus followed her with his eyes, watching attentively as she removed a small wooden correspondence box from it. On the peach-coloured couch, her cat was getting fussy, probably upset at not having their attention for more than half of an hour, and started to mewl softly. After quickly petting the little beast, she came back into the kitchen, pulled a chair and sat down besides him, putting the box on her lap. As she pulled her chair a little too close to him, Severus almost pushed his back, but forced himself to stay where he was and act naturally. Even if she didn´t seem to have much of a clue about what "personal space" was, Severus was thankful that at the very least she had the ability of choosing a decent perfume. There was this very subtle lavender scent about her, certainly not one of those rammish blends of pretentious fragrances that muggle women seemed to fancy and were willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for, but a very pure, unadulterated fragrance, as if she had just walked through a lavender field on her way back home.

Meanwhile the cat lay at her feet, pretty much demanding her attention. As she put the box on the table and bent down to pet him once again, and Severus took the opportunity to examine the object. But just as he looked at it, it became suddenly obvious to him that this was no common box. It took him a couple of seconds to actually convince himself his eyes weren´t playing a trick on him. He reached over and ran his fingers over the delicately carved crest that adorned the bid of the box.  
"Miss Black..." He called her hesitantly "This crest...what do you make of it?..."

"Oh, this crest...don´t even get me started on it...I´ve been looking for it everywhere...I even contacted this colleague who´s a heraldry expert and asked him to try to locate it´s origin, but no luck...And this motto Toujours Pur, 'always pure', doesn´t appear anywhere in the documentation we consulted. We even contacted people in Ireland, North Ireland, Scotland, mind you even France and every specialist we consulted came up empty handed..."

"And the papers?" It took Severus some effort to look unaffected.

"Oh, sure", she opened the box and very carefully retrieved a bunch of yellowing letters tied by a black satin ribbon, so old they looked like they could fall apart just from being handled. "These letters I haven´t had the opportunity to read in detail. I´m even scared to handle them too much, to be honest, and I don´t believe they can actually be read, not without some extensive restoration...but this..." She laid the letter on the lid of the box and retrieved another piece of old yellowing paper, but this time in remarkably better condition and folded up like a map. She stood up and moved away some of the plates from the table, opening the paper on it. "This is the family tree I was telling you about..."

Severus stood up beside her and looked at it, completely at a loss of words. This wasn´t just a simple family tree...

"Here, you see?" She continued to talk, and pointed out one of the names scribbled in a tiny and barely readable calligraphy. "Marius Black... That´s my grandfather...His name is crossed out, like many others but you can still read it clearly... And this family tree connects to many others family trees it seems. That includes the Princes, as you can see here...And here´s what has brought me to you...Eileen Prince... Her name is also crossed out for whatever reason... Do you have any idea as to why this might be?"

"No...no idea..." He lied "I have to agree with you tough...It´s most certainly...remarkable. Do you still have that house deed?"

"Yes, right here..." she handed it to him. Severus re-read the document. Marius Black. There was little doubt in his mind, in fact it was pretty obvious, and Severus was about to kick himself for not realizing it sooner.

"Oh...It´s almost six..." He let out, pretending to be alarmed "I was supposed do meet a friend across town at eight, I have to get going..."

"Ah, of course I don´t want to keep you."

"Would you mind if I borrowed this?" he gestured the family tree "I might find something to compare it with among my mother´s belongings..."

"Oh, sure you can take it...and here..." she took a piece of paper form her purse and folded it along with the family tree "It´s a copy of the house deed, I have to hold on to the original, but you can take this..."

"Thank you, Miss Black...Now, I really should go..."

"Sure, I´ll walk you to the door..."

Resisting the urge to step on Ciarán tail along the way, Severus let himself be guided to front door, his mind still shrouded in contemplation of what had just been shown to him. Evelyn opened the door and he turned to her, putting on a mask of normalcy.

"Thank you for the tea..."

"Don´t mention it...Oh, by the way..." She walked over to one of the book boxes and came back with the book he had been browsing just a while before. "Here. I hope you enjoy it. But feel free to tell me if you don´t."

-

It was past ten when Minerva MacGonagall finally managed to have a moment of much needed peace in her private office. Being a deputy headmistress for nearly two decades surely hadn´t prepared her for the herculean task of being the headmistress of a post-War Hogwarts. There was still so much to do, so much to fix... They had bravely managed to start the school year, trying to make things run as smoothly as possible considering the circumstances but... Hogwarts was not the same, and she prayed one day it would return to what it once was...Minerva knew, however that the road leading up to that day seemed too long and rocky...So many were missing, teachers, students...And those who remained would forever have to cope with the terrible events they had witnessed and the losses they had suffered... But Hogwarts still stood...and it would remain standing as far as she was concerned.

She sat on her favourite armchair, removing her glasses and closing her eyes, enjoying the cool breeze that entered through the window and listening to the soothing sounds of the night outside, when the abrupt sound of flapping wings caught her attention. She looked up to see a raven perched on her windowsill, looking at her. Minerva smiled and observed the bird, a fine specimen with lustrous black feathers that reflected the moonlight in dark blueish tones.  
"Well, it´s awfully kind of you to keep me company for a while, but it´s far too late for visits..." She stood up to shoo the bird away, when she heard a low raucous sound coming from the animal, almost as if it was chuckling.

She took a step back as the bird graciously flew into the room. In a split second, the sleek black silhouette grew and changed into that of a man, before her startled eyes. He amazement, however, faded away immediately as she recognised an all-too familiar face.

"Severus."

"Minerva"

"As I was saying my friend...it´s a little too late for visits" She smiled warmly "But it´s nice to see you nevertheless..."

"I do apologize for stopping by so late and unannounced...But I have something to discuss with you. Something that can´t wait until tomorrow..."


	8. Part 3 Autumn, 1998 -Chapter 1

October, 3rd

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, Scotland

Minerva MacGonagall´s office

"Your neighbour you say..." Minerva mumbled, deep in thought.

"I know, it sounds preposterous..."

They sat silently facing each other for a few seconds, as the fire gently burned, colouring Minerva´s office in soft shades of gold and orange. Severus sunk down in his chair, enjoying the familiarity of being back at Hogwarts even if momentarily. For good or bad Hogwarts was the closest thing to home he had, maybe even more so than his childhood home in Spinner´s End. Spinner´s End was a retreat, a place filled with memories and ghosts he came back to whenever life was too heavy to bear. Hogwarts, however was the place where his life had actually taken it´s course. Spinner´s End was dream and reverie, Hogwarts was reality, blunt and crude. Coming back was like revisiting what made him into what he was, and as much as he didn´t like what he had become, it was all he had.

"Well, what evidence do you have? " Minerva´s quiet voice brought him back to the earth.

"Just this afternoon...Miss Black invited me for tea..."

"She did?" Minerva chuckled lightly, obviously amused at the notion "And you accepted it?"

"Minerva, it´s serious."

"I´m sorry.." she smiled "Do carry on..."

"Well, the subject of her grandfather came up and I asked to see those papers she was talking about. Minerva, I´m telling you, there´s no doubt in my mind that Evelyn Black is a member of the proverbial Noble and Most Ancient House of Black"

"Are you sure this isn´t just one big coincidence. Her last name might have given you the impression..."

"That´s what I thought, until she showed me this..." He stood up and walked towards her desk, taking a bunch of folded papers from the pocket of his jacket. Minerva followed and watched closely as Snape unfolded a very large sheet of yellowing paper, revealing a most intricate family tree. Straightening up her glasses, Minerva leaned in and took a close look.

"But this is..." She looked at him completely taken aback by surprise.

"The Black family tree...In fact not just that, but a complete family tree of the Black family which includes the marriages the Blacks contracted with other pure blood families...The Malfoys, the Weasleys, the Crabbes, the Princes..."

"How could a muggle possibly be in possession of such a thing..."

"According to what Miss Black told me herself, this was among her late grandfather´s belongings... Also according to her..." He pointed out one of the names in the main family tree "this is her late grandfather."

"Marius Black?"

"Yes. The very same Marius Black who was disowned and banished from the family for being a squib, in the 1930s. According to her, Marius Black, left her this family tree, and this house." He handed her the copy of the house deed Evelyn had given him.  
"But this document...is one of those documents used in wizard-muggle transactions, isn´t it?"

"It seems the house next to mine at Spinner´s End once belonged to the Blacks and the Princes, possibly due to a marriage, and for whatever reason, was passed on to Marius´ name."

"How much do you think she knows about the Black family?"

"Close to nothing...It seems her grandfather left England when he was around twenty, settled in Ireland, got married raised his own family never telling anyone anything about his past. As far as I could tell, all of this is a mystery to her."

"And it should remain as such...Severus, the implications..." She let out, her eyes fixated on the papers he had just shown her.

"I´m well aware of them, Minerva." He walked away from her and poured himself a glass of water from her cabinet. "Keeping this from her might be a bit of a problem though...She really is a Black, there´s no denying it...Even the family resemblance..."

"Indeed?"-Minerva raise an eyebrow.

"Yes." He nodded, swallowing a gulp of water. "Pretty hard to miss, you know the Blacks have this look about them..."

"Well, the Black family is known for producing some rather good-looking members..." she laughed lightly "But maybe you´re exaggerating a bit? Is not like they all have Black written on their foreheads"...

Severus put his glass down, and fumbled a little with the internal pockets of his jacket. He produced a hard cover book and opened it, handing it to her.

"See for yourself" He pointed at the black and white picture inside. Minerva brought the book near the closest source of light and inspected the photo.

"Oh, dear..."

"Told you..."

"Indeed you´re right, Severus...She´s a lovely lass." She smiled

"I never said she was 'lovely' "He hissed, annoyed.

Minerva looked at him with a hint of amusement in her expression. Shaking her head, she browsed through the book for a while, reading the summary with vivid interest. Then she took a long look at the cover.

"Evelyn Black...A charming name as well...So, she´s a writer..."

"A historian," he added "Graduated in on of the most prestigious muggle Universities, apparently she specifically writes about history of witchcraft, which leads me to think that her grandfather might have told her something about magic...This is no ordinary muggle we´re dealing with here, Minerva..."

"I can see that...It would be disastrous if any muggle we´re to discover the existence of the Wizarding world...But this muggle in particular...We must do something about it, Severus. If Miss Black keeps investigating, she´s bound to find something she shouldn´t."

"That´s precisely the reason I´m here Minerva."

"Before we do anything, you must discover how much she already knows and..."

"Minerva, Minerva..." he shook his head, his voice taking on a slightly aggravated tone "I´ve been playing the spy for seventeen bloody years, I no longer have the patience..."

"Severus, listen to me, please...This woman lives next door to you, and she obviously trusts you, otherwise she wouldn´t have told you all of this"

"She doesn´t trust me..." he smirked, visibly annoyed "She is a parrot, that´s all."

"Oh, Severus..." Minerva chuckled ever so slightly, as if she was witnessing a small temper tantrum from a toddler.

"Don´t laugh Minerva, I´m serious, that woman just can´t keep her mouth shut. She would talk to whoever happened to be around to listen..."

"Precisely, my friend...You were around to listen...She just left her home and her country... And you happen to live next door. That make you the closest person to her right now...And since she´s such a chatterbox as you just said, I´m sure getting information out of her should be easy enough for one with your experience."

"Minerva, I just told you, I´ve spend too much of my life being a spy under Dumbledore´s orders...You seriously don´t think I will..."

"I´m sure I´m giving you a much easier, not to mention more pleasant, 'task' than those Dumbledore did back then, Severus." She smiled


	9. Part 3 Autumn, 1998 -Chapter 2

October, 4th

Cokeworth

Spinner´s End, 13

Severus woke up earlier than usual. Not that he had gotten much sleep anyway.

What Minerva had asked him was nothing but child´s play. All he had to do was set up some smoke and mirrors and throw a gullible muggle off her trail of investigation. It was simple enough, and he was completely aware of the obvious fact that he was the only one who could do it. Minerva was absolutely right, Miss Black had to be stopped before the Statute of Secrecy was broken, he was in a privileged position to do so, easily and without raising any flags...

Then why did her request made him so uncomfortable?

Maybe because, as simple as it was, it entailed things he currently had nor the patience nor the will for... It was evident enough that if he wanted to gather information and protect the Statute of Secrecy from that nosy woman he would have to approach her and play the part of a nice, concerned neighbour...The mere thought bored him to tears. He had gone back to Spinner´s End precisely looking for peace... Now he would have to socialize with an Irish parrot...

Not that she was unpleasant...quite far from it actually...Evelyn Black was anything but unpleasant...Actually, she was a little too pleasant for his liking... Still, he was quite thankful that, at the very least she seemed intelligent and had remarkable manners...But still, she was so...common, so mundane with her tea, cleaning and home economics...And just so unnervingly sociable. Well, she was a historian, but...a muggle, writing about witchcraft...The notion almost made him laugh...

After pouring himself a cup of coffee and making some toast and beans, Severus sat down to eat and organise his thoughts. It wasn´t that bad, he told himself...at least he had something to do with his time...Being bored to tears by his chatty neighbour was still better than laying on his bed all day long just waiting patiently for his life to pass him by...Wasn´t it?...

As he sat down, he noticed the book he had left on the kitchen table the night before, after returning home. Evelyn Black´s book. That might be a good place to start. If his intuition was right, Marius Black had to have told her something about the wizarding world, even if only hints of its existence...Otherwise why would she pick precisely that subject for her research? Quickly finishing his meal, he cast a scouring spell on the dish and cup, picked up the book and headed for the living room.

With a flick of his wand he lit up the fireplace, sat on his armchair and made himself comfortable enough to spend the rest of the Sunday reading. Pushing everything else to the back of his mind, he relaxed and opened the book.

_'Much has been written and discussed about witch trials all over Europe. Trial procedures have been painstakingly documented, and the proverbial witch hunts are well attested by various sources, be them legal, religious, literary or artistic, not to mention that official documents concerning this facts are, for the most part, well-preserved. In fact, it´s safe to say that historians of most European countries have an enormous wealth of material to work with when researching witchcraft and witch trials. That however has not been the case for Irish historians.'_

Severus almost jumped from his seat when he felt something lightly tickle his foot. Looking down he saw a pair of amber eyes staring up at him. Ciarán...Evelyn Black´s bloody pest of a cat. He rolled his eyes and closed the book.

"You again?" Ciarán seemed to have taken his exasperate hiss as a welcome sign, as it promptly jumped onto his lap. Carelessly dropping the book on top of a nearby pile, Severus picked up the animal by the scruff of the neck and put him back on the floor. "I have to remember to fix that bloody window in the kitchen..."

He stood up, walked over to the window, ignoring the all mewling, and pushed the curtain away. Soon enough Evelyn Black came into his field of vision and the, now familiar, click-clack of her heels reached his ears. Not wearing the gaudy shades of red she seemed to fancy, he noticed with a smirk. From where he was all he could see was a dark coloured skirt, a beige plaid shawl and high heels...Was the woman born with high heels on? She entered her Volvo and drove away.

"She never even noticed you snuck out, did she?" he chuckled, turning to the black cat, that was already comfortably nested on his armchair. "And I guess there´s no point bringing you back..."

Severus shooed the cat away from his seat, and resumed his reading, as the animal settled lazily in the pile of books next to his armchair, purring happily.

"But I´m still not petting you, understood?"

_'The country´s relative isolation, the separation between the ruling Protestant minority and the catholic majority as well as the absence of specific written sources about witchcraft are certainly determining factors in the apparent silence regarding the matter. References to such events are scarce and hard to come by, as most records have been destroyed overtime, lost into the tumultuous religious history of Ireland. That when recordings even existed, which was often not the case. The lack of an official apparatus as organized as that which could be found in countries where the Catholic Church held the religious and political hegemony, with Spain as a classic example, certainly contributed decisively to Ireland´s uncommon standing in the historiography of witch trials. That isn´t to say that witch trials were unheard of in the Emerald Island...'_

-

Severus had almost finished the book, without as much as noticing the passing of hours. Insistent mewling brought him back to reality. The clock on the shelf next to the fireplace has just struck four in the afternoon, making him suddenly aware that he had completely forgotten about lunch. He looked down at the cat. The wee beast had been unusually quiet, simply sleeping quietly, allowing Severus almost an entire afternoon of much needed peace. Maybe it had become accustomed to his house, having thoroughly explored it the day before. But now it was getting slightly restless, looking up at him and mewling incessantly.

"And now I suppose you want me to feed you, don´t you?" The cat simply continued to stare. Severus stood up and walked towards the kitchen, trying to shake away the soreness of spending hours sitting in the same position.

"Why don´t you simply go outside and kill a bird or something, you little useless runt?" he grumbled, roaming the kitchen looking for something to feed his "guest". After some fumbling he got a hold of a can of kippers, opened it, served some of it onto a small saucer and put it on the floor. The cat approached, sniffed it then looked up at him again.

"I know your owner probably feeds you like a bloody prince, but while you´re here is either that or starve...Your choice, fleabag."

The cat seemingly accepted his meagre offering and proceeded to eat, as Severus lit a cigarette. He watched as the smoke drew fine spirals onto the cool, grey sunlight, while mulling over what he had just read. It was evident that Miss Evelyn Black was an accomplished scholar, with a flair for writing that many would aspire to. Regardless of the theme matter, her writing was engaging and straightforward prose and her meticulous research work and analytical prowess were, quite frankly, impressive. But excellent muggle historians and writers were a common occurrence... Evelyn Black was certainly not just that.

The book wasn´t an overtly argumentative work, but rather a work of reference, and it fancied itself as such. There was nothing quite striking about it in the way of thesis or ideas. It was rather an almost entirely narrative history of witch trials in Ireland. It was a book written to shed light on past events that were, for the most part, forgotten by the general public. At that it was quite successful. But there was something there he couldn´t quite grasp that made it entirely different from all muggle books he had read on the subject so far.

Some of the wizards and witches accused in the trials Evelyn Black had covered in her book were well known in the Wizarding World, but practically unheard of among muggles as far as he could tell. She probably had gone through incredible lengths to have access to documents about such cases. He had eagerly read the bibliographic notes and the introduction where she detailed her process of research, leraning that she had used the original trial proceeding as sources for her texts. Most of those were found in old monasteries, libraries and archives hidden in small Irish villages, or in the forgotten sections of larger libraries in bigger cities. Hardly a wealth of references to work with...and yet, her accounts of the trials were vivid and full of insights.

As expected, these very real witches and wizards shared space in her book with various muggles accused of witchcraft due to the public´s general ignorance about magic...He might as well be going crazy but he had the vivid impression that underlying her text there was a clear difference between those trials and the trials of actual wizards. In the case of falsely accused muggles, Evelyn Black seemed to have compiled some sketchy "alternative theories" explaining how such accusation came to be brought against them...When it came to actual wizards and witches however, there was a notably drier approach to facts. Granted, those were the cases about which she seemed to have the least amount of sources to work with. Certainly a lot of evidence that she could have used was erased by other wizards, working though the years to protect the secrecy of the Wizarding World, but still... Severus could´t quite dismiss the feeling that somehow she knew which cases involved actual magic, and which didn´t.

He pushed such thoughts away from his mind when he heard the faint sound of a car breaking the thick silence outside. Miss Black´s car certainly. She had spent the whole morning and a good portion of the afternoon out, on a Sunday... For a second Severus wondered if she was up to something he should know. Probably not. But even if she was, he would know soon enough. The noise had caught the cat´s attention as even before it did his own, as it had stopped eating to raise his head, listening attentively. Severus followed the creature with his eyes as it swiftly jumped onto the kitchen counter and went out the broken window.

"Well, you´re welcome..." He let out with a smirk, picking up the abandoned saucer, quickly vanishing the left overs before scourging it. As he put the saucer back on the cabinet, he let his eyes wander out the window, following the little black silhouette of the cat as it strolled on top of the wall that separated the backyard from the woods. The cat quickly vanished from his sight, as it climbed down from the wall, just to reappear moments later, climbing up the windowsill of Miss Black´s kitchen. Severus had completely forgotten his kitchen window practically had a view to the kitchen next door...Maybe because nobody had actually lived next door for as long as he could remember.

The cat just sat on the windowsill for a while, almost as if it didn´t want to get inside...Or couldn´t get inside...Even though the window was wide open. Severus leaned in, puzzled. Either that cat was completely crazy, or something was wrong...Severus raised an eyebrow and watched as Ciarán kept beating on the glass with his paw. Suddenly, Miss Black made her way into the kitchen.

She sat by the kitchen table seemingly unaware that her pet was sitting on the windowsill and wouldn´t , or couldn´t, get inside. It was most odd...She did nothing other than sit there, her elbows on the table, one hand supporting her head, looking morose and tired. Once again Severus wondered what she had been up to...Maybe trying to find out more about her grandfather´s mysterious inheritance...He shook his head...No, it wasn´t that...It was something else...something personal. After a while she finally walked over to the window and pulled the cat out of the windowsill and into her arms. Severus leaned back, deep in thought, as she cradled the insufferable thing in her arms.

He was barely aware of the fact that he had simply stood in front of his window, looking into his neighbor´s kitchen like a bloody stalker, until she turned in his direction. Her face looked pale and tired, but she smiled at him. A faint, broken smile, quite unlike the frank, open and mildly annoying smiles he had seen from her up until now. She waved before leaving the kitchen with Ciarán still cradled in her arms.

"Something isn´t right over there", Severus mumbled to himself, his fingers drumming slightly onto the counter.


	10. Part 3 Autumn, 1998 -Chapter 3

October, 4th

Cokeworth

Spinner´s End, 12

Sunday...The first in her new "home"...Although it certainly didn´t feel like home just yet. That would take sometime...Evelyn hadn´t even had the time to start feeling at home. Two days...cleaning, unpacking, organising, fixing, exploring...That house just puzzled her to no end. She had tried to look for clues, anything that might be related to her grandfather somehow, but no luck...Nothing that indicated that he had ever as much as set foot into that house.

Evelyn let her body fall heavily onto the bed, drawing in a deep sigh. She looked around at the room she currently called her bedroom. There were two bedrooms in the house, the other one had been turned into and office, where she had organised all of her books and papers. The bedroom she occupied most certainly had once belonged to either a female or a couple, judging by the ample four-postered bed and the delicate décor. It didn´t really follow the art-déco style of the first floor, although some elements of it were pretty obvious...Instead it looked more "transitional" with a heavy turn-of the century feel, particularly in the objects, art and those magnificent stained glass windows that made the grey day-light outside change into a myriad of soft colours as it came inside...A rich tone of brownish-pink covered the walls making it all warm and welcoming...the faded pattern of the impeccably conserved wallpaper gave it an undeniable charm, just as the delicate curtains and dark art-nouveau style wooden furniture...But still...it didn´t feel like it was ever "lived in"...It felt more like a film set than a house where someday, someone had lived. All of the house had this slightly disturbing feel of never having been quite "alive". She smiled, feeling a little stupid...According to the neighbour nobody had lived there for forty years, so she shouldn´t be surprised that the house was dead, so to speak...

The neighbour...Severus Snape... Most unusual man he was...One day snarky and surly and the other, suddenly solicit...albeit always insufferably grumpy. Evelyn shook her head, a little ashamed of herself for thinking about him in such terms...Of course he was snappish and ill-tempered, it was rather obvious the man wasn´t going through the most happy period of his life... Recovering from injuries that had kept him away from work, seemingly without any assistance from family or friends...No wonder he wasn´t the cheeriest of men.

"Leave of absence due to injury", she recalled his words, lazily petting Ciarán, who had just climbed the the bed and laid his head onto her belly. Evelyn wondered what those words meant exactly, but didn´t have the nerve to ask...Not after seeing his left hand and the bandages on his neck... She hadn´t noticed when they first met, but when he awkwardly carried her shopping bags, she could see something was not right with his left hand, and those bandages on his neck just looked like they hid a pretty awful injury, if the glimpse of unhealed scars snaking up his jaw were any indication. He was a chemistry teacher, so at first she thought it might be a work related injury, but what she saw were clearly the marks of an act of violence...

Regardless of whatever had happened to cause those injuries, what really puzzled her about him, was his staunch refusal to answer her questions with more than vague negatives. During their first conversation she couldn´t decide if he was simply being curmudgeon or if he was withholding information from her. Thinking about it later, she came to the obvious conclusion that he really didn´t know anything about the house or the relation between their families...And frankly how could he? Her grandfather had lived in Ireland since the 1930s and over the course of the decades had turned into the most Irish of all the men she knew, safe from his own son, born and raised in Doolin, a teacher of both Irish history and Gaelic to boot. Never had Marius Black Sr. set a foot in England again after moving to Doolin...Actually Evelyn could count on the fingers of one hand the times he left Doolin for anything...and even so, the farthest he had ever travelled was Dublin. That Severus Snape, an antisocial man, about her own age, apparently born and raised in Greater Manchester area and employed somewhere in Scotland up until recently would have any knowledge about her grandfather´s past was a downright ludicrous idea.

But after casually meeting her new neighbour and inviting him over for tea, she was forced to forget the notion that he didn´t know anything. Strangely enough he had been so solicit and patient this time around, that one might wonder if he had ulterior motives. But, she had thought to herself then, he could simply have felt bad for treating her so poorly the day before...Maybe he was having a bad day and let it get to him, and was now sincerely sorry... Maybe that polite, yet stubbornly quiet man she had had tea with was the real Severus Snape, and not the snappish and rude tyrant from the first day. She had let herself relax, happy to have at least on neighbour to talk to in that godforsaken street...but once they entered the subject of her grandfather, and she showed him the box of documents...Evelyn couldn´t quite put her finger on it, but he had changed...She could distincvely feel he was tense. The he made up some excuse about having to meet a friend across town and left hurriedly.

She laughed softly. Paranoid, she was positively paranoid. Severus Snape knew just as much as she did, and was, probably, just as puzzled as she was by all of it. She was letting it all get to her... The last three years...breaking up with Richard, then her grandfather´s death, moving back to Doolin and her father passing away as well, and so recently, before she had even recovered from loosing her grandfather...And now all those mysteries surrounding his past. The last three years had been hectic, to say the least...After the death of her older brother, twenty five years ago, she had been hoisted to the position of "oldest child" with all the privileges and responsibilities it entailed and it has just hit her that maybe all this time she had been trying too hard. And now with all the men of the family gone, her mother and sister Caitlin expected her to take the helm. For months she had taken care of the family´s matters, her father´s assets, assisted her sister and two young nieces, kept her mother company...Caitlin jokingly called her "the man of the house" and it wasn´t far from the truth. She had spent so much time looking after everybody else, that only now, in the silence of that odd house, did it finally sank in...Her father was dead...Marius Black II, the kind, serious scholar loved by all, who had taught her everything she knew about the wondrous land where she was born...was dead...Like his own father, just a mere couple of years before him, a man just as gentle and admirable as his son, the one who had filled her childhood with wonder and fairytales...Within three years, nothing but three years, both gone...

Evelyn swiftly got up, fighting back the tears and started to get changed. She couldn´t just lay there, crying. Never in her life she had allowed herself to indulge in tears and inaction and she wasn´t about to start now...She had to find a way to keep herself busy, find something to do with her time... She slipped into a warm pair of stockings, an unadorned brown blouse and black skirt, put on a pair of the simplest pumps she owned, grabbed her beige plaid shawl and left, still not knowing where to go.

-

It was a grey, cold day and the streets mirrored the the dull, cloudy sky. As fitting for a Sunday, not many people were on the street and those who walked around looked like nothing more than dark shadows with their shapeless coats. Cokeworth wasn´t exactly a lively place, but the neighbourhoods surrounding Spinner´s End were particularly morose at any given time, moreso on a Sunday. As she drove forward the only semblance of vibrancy she saw were the bright shades of orange and red crowning the trees. The sight of Autumn leaves had always had a very soothing effect on Evelyn. To her Autumn had the scent of hot cocoa and leaves, of lazy afternoons spent in the backyard with her big brother, of the smoke of her father´s pipe, as he sat on his rocking chair, of her sister´s baby powder and her mother´s chamomile tea. Her sister was only five when Paul, the eldest, passed away at age eleven, and barely remembered him; but to Evelyn, Paul´s image was all too clear...On afternoons like this, Paul and Evelyn would spend hours outside, picking the prettiest leaves they could find so later, as night fell, they´d show them to Caitlin, using them as puppets to tell her silly stories that made her giggle uncontrollably...Then, the three would use them to make mishapen wreaths and collages that their mother used to decorate the house.

Evelyn had been driving around for so long she had lost track of time. She was somewhat familiar with the main part of Cokeworth, what people called "the nice part of town" or the "new town" on the other side of the river from Spinner´s End and surroundings, but other than a brief excursion two days before, this side of the river was still unknown to her. The history of the town was quite evident in every brick and crack she passed by... This side of town had once been a prominent part of the Industrial Revolution, and Cokeworth´s textile production was only surpassed by that of neighbouring Oldham. The rows of of brownish-red brick houses built to house the mill workers, the mill itself looming over the town like the dark shadow of a monster king, the narrow streets...all was evidence of a past that still lingered over the rundown neighborhoods this side of the river. Much like Oldham, however, Cokeworth´s textile industry fell into a decline by the mid-XXth century. The once rapidly growing town went into a state of stoppage, and only after new economical alternatives were found, its development had resumed, this time by the other side of the river. The once bustling industrial centre slowly turned into a ghost town.

After much wandering around, Evelyn finally reached the main bridge and made it to the other side, driving away from the "old town" and into the "new" one. It would be nice to get away from the river and its horrid stench... The "old" town was disturbingly quiet, so maybe revisiting the commercial centre would make for a more pleasant pastime. But just as she had made her mind to go into the main commercial area, her attention was caught by the sound of laughter. A little beyond the bridge there was a small park, with overgrown bushes. There were some kids playing there. That was a sight she hadn´t seen yet around here. She had seen plenty children playing in the more residential part of town, but the closer one got to the "old town" the more dificult it got to see kids or families. She quickly found a parking space, got out of the car and walked towards the park.

It was nothing but a little playground with rusty swings, a slide and a teeter-totter. The ground was covered in leaves and sticks surrounded by dry bushes. Still, the half-dozen kids running around didn´t seem to mind it much. There were benches, and she saw a small group of women sitting on one of them, talking, and eventually calling out to the kids. As run down as the park seemed to be, it was quite obvious that the families of the area still thought of it as a viable source of entertainment for their children. She walked around and tried to not think to much about the possibility of any of those children getting tetanus from the rusty toys, and instead looked on as they played. Evelyn almost laughed at herself...how come at the sight of playing children, tetanus was the first thing in her mind? She was starting to turn into her mother... She could still remember when her and Paul were little, running about, jumping over rusty fences, scaring sheep, running through grass, dirt and mud, climbing trees to get fruit which they would then eat with their dirty little hands, running off to the sea to swim and play at the beach without adult supervision. Evelyn was absolutely sure the two of them had been personally responsible for at least half of their mother´s once golden blonde hair turning prematurely snowy white.

She leaned on the fence and looked around. Away from the park she could see the modern skyline of the new-town Cokeworth, an inverted mirror of the old mill town behind her. A few meters away from where she stood there was a little church, a XIX century Gothic revival building. The park and church seemed to mark the precise spot where old Cokeworth had stopped growing and gave way tp the new one. Evelyn usually didn´t like revival Gothic...Maybe it was a little snobbish of her, but she was so used to visiting actual Gothic cathedrals, particularly in her many study travels to France, that the revival style just felt like a cheap knock-off of the real thing. But this particular church had something positively charming about it...It was rather small, but it was so well-proportioned and the details were so delicate that instead of a "copy" it felt almost like a miniature. She let go of the fence and walked over to the church, wrapping her shawl tightly around her shoulders to protect herself from the gelid breeze that shook the leaves off the branches of the trees scattered around her.

The church was almost empty and her heels echoed onto the marble pavement. She sat down on one of the benches in the back and observed the few people inside, middle-aged women sitting in duos or trios, talking quietly amongst themselves, probably waiting for the services to begin, and acolytes walking about preparing the altar. Evelyn took a deep breath, the scent of candles and incense bringing her back to a familiar place. Her mother was the most devout person she had ever known...To her being a Roman Catholic was as much a part of her identity as being Irish, and she was possibly the most Irish of all Irish mothers...Now that she was an adult, Evelyn could laugh about it, but growing up, having a Irish Catholic stereotype for a mother wasn´t always fun. But still, as overbearing and conservative as she was, Sophia Black was the sweetest, most devoted mother one could ever wish for...Maybe that was the reason that religion didn´t feel as oppressive to Evelyn as it might have otherwise... Once she started her studies, she had read the lives of saints with great interested and fallen in love with St. Teresa, St Catherine of Sienna, St Augustine and St Thomas Aquina´s writings all of which she read with a purely academic interest, in a subconscious attempt to go against what she saw as a "simplistic" and almost ignorant attitude towards faith of her mother. Over time, once the teenage rebellion wore off and she started to understand her mother better, Evelyn had learned to see things in a more flexible way...But still, she would never be as "good" a catholic as her mother would like her to be.

Actually, Evelyn was the text-book definition of a fallen catholic: she almost never went to mass, she firmly believed a lot of the church´s dogmas and positions to be flat out ridiculous, she had lived with a man for four years without being married to him...and yet, she kept her silver cross on her neck at all times, caught herself praying whenever she felt alone or depressed, and when things looked bleak didn´t have many qualms about looking for the next church for a bit of peaceful reflection...Like now. Sitting quiet inside that little "toy" version of a Gothic cathedral, watching the preparations for the mass, she felt a sense of amazing peace invade her...She clutched her shawl letting the quiet inside the building ease away the bothersome thoughts...

"Excuse me, miss?" A soft male voice brought her back to earth. She looked up and saw a man dressed in black clergy shirt with a collaret and a clerical collar. He was somewhat stocky, had greying blond hair and looked about sixty-something, but his bright blue eyes and soft expression lent him a certain youthfulness.

"Yes?"

"May I have a seat?"

"Of course.." she smiled, scooting away to give him more space

"Father Thomas..." he smiled

"Evelyn Black." She smiled back, shaking the hand he offered her

"I don´t remember seeing you here before...and I know each and every one of my parishioners"

"Oh, yes...I just moved..."

"From Ireland, right?"

"Yes...Is it that obvious?" she laughed softly

" Just a little bit..." he laughed heartily "But I would recognise an Irish accent anywhere..."

"Is that so?"

"My grandparents were Irish...Actually most of Cokeworth´s catholic community is of Irish extraction"

"I see..."

"And how is Cokeworth treating you so far, Miss Black?" His voice was quieter and more serious now, his blue eyes filled with concern

"I´ve only been here for three days, actually...So I guess is too early to tell"

"Are you living nearby?"

"Yes...Spinner´s End..."

"Spinner´s End?" his eyes widened slightly

"You seem surprised"

"In a way yes...I used to do lots of charity work there in the past... But ever since the mill closed nobody lives there anymore...Even the Snapes, who stayed there for longer...After Eileen and Tobias died, their boy moved to Wales or Scotland..."

"Scotland."

"Oh, you know Severus?"

"He´s my neighbor..."

"Severus?...Oh, my..never knew he had returned...But then again he was never the most sociable young man out there..." Father Thomas smiled saddly

"Were the Snapes your parishioners?"

"No, not actually...They are not catholic. But I did get the chance to meet them every time I went to Spinner´s End... They were...hard to miss, so to speak...Severus spend a lot of time playing in the park out there as well..."

"Did he?" Evelyn smiled, the thought of her moody neighbour as a young boy playing in the park amusing her greatly

"He did...Severus spend more time wandering on the Streets than home... I lost track of how many times I stumbled upon him..." He chuckled, melancholic "This little scrawny lad, always so quiet... Didn´t have any friends, other than this little girl, about his age...they went together everywhere...What was her name...Linnie, Lilian..Something with an 'L'"

"And Eileen...do you remember her?"

"I never knew her too well...The Snapes kept to themselves, mostly...Tobias had some... issues..Severus moved away to a boarding school and from then on I only saw him on summer breaks and Holidays...I meet him sometimes after his parents died and he moved away, but...is not like we ever socialised...He´s very...guarded."

"Sounds like him all right..." She mumbled.

"But tell me about you...Where in Ireland are you from?"

"Doolin."

"County Clare...Lovely place...My grandparents were from Kerry, just next door from you. I´ve actually been to Doolin a couple of times, to visit the Cliffs...Most lovely sight on summer"

"Oh, indeed...the beach is wonderful..."

"Yes...great for surfing...not I´d know about it...as far as sports go I´m rather hopeless...But do tell, why would anyone leave such a gorgeous place behind? Work?"

"In a way...I´m doing some...historical research, so to speak..."

"Oh, really? That´s interesting...If you need any help, just drop by. We have some very interesting archives in the church"

"I most certainly will."

"Oh, well...I must go...service starts in a few, if you feel like staying..."

"I guess I will, thank you..."

"Good...Well, Miss Black...welcome to Cokeworth."

Evelyn watched as father Thomas walked away, shaking hands and greeting people left and and right on his way to the sacristy. As they sat there talking a quite larger number of parishioners had arrived, mostly middle aged or elderly women and families with children...Many greeted her discreetly, and Evelyn greeted them back. Soon enough she was sharing her bench with a young mother and her fussy toddler and a pair rather chatty elderly ladies. Evelyn allowed herself to stay where she was as the people made their way in and found their places. After hours wandering about town all alone, sharing an hour of her time with other people, even if for something as boring as mass, would do her some good.

-

Unknowingly Fr. Thomas had provided Evelyn with some precious few moments of complete peace of mind. For some time she didn´t think of her father or grandfather, or her mother and sister in Ireland, or even the mysterious papers her grandfather had left behind. Instead she had just basked in the comforting aura of his father-like figure and allowed herself to just be another one of his parishioners. But some of the things he said had made an impression of her.

Severus Snape...There was certainly more to that man than it met the eye. A scrawny kid, wandering about in the streets, possibly dealing with some serious issues at home...Evelyn had noticed he didn´t have family pictures in his living room...Only photos of his mother and a red-haired girl. Sure enough his father wasn´t some "model dad" who would deserve being commemorated by a nice photograph on the mantle. And the red-haired girl...she could only be the one Fr. Thomas had talked about...Linnie or Lilian... Probably the very same young woman from the ripped photograph she had seen there... Maybe the little girl he shared his childhood with had turned out to be his girlfriend or wife...But torn photographs were an usual sign of love gone wrong, Evelyn knew it all too well...

She opened the door and threw her shawl onto the couch, shaking her head. What was she doing, snooping around the life of a man she had just met...It wasn´t like her at all...In fact why the hell was she so interested in this Severus? She had more important matters to be concerned with...Instead of thinking about her neighbour, Evelyn should be foccusing on what she had noved into Cokeworth to do. If only her father was still alive he might...Come to think of it...She wondered if her father knew the contents of her grandfather´s box...Once he had received the box and other objects from his own mother he had simply locked it away in the attic and never talked about it again...Now Evelyn had to ask herself if he had done this simply because he toutght they were old stff of no importance or if he had had any particular reason to do that...Suddenly she remebered what Severus Snape has told her on the day they first met...Maybe there was a reason her grandfather had never shared this with anyone else...maybe she would just end up stumbling onto something that might be better left uncovered...She shook her head as she walked into the kitchen, and sat down for a while...She was tired, her feet hurt and she hadn´t even had lunch yet..Maybe she was just too hungry and too tired for her thoughts to make sense...

Suddenly a little noise got her attention...she looked over to the window and saw Ciarán sitting on the windowsill, staring at her and beating onto the window-glass with his paw...

"I´m not in the mood to play today...Just come in already, window´s open, you silly..." she smiled. But the Cat remained still, looking at her as if he was just as puzzled as she was. "What´s going on?"

She stood up and walked over to the window, carefully picking him up from the windowsill and cradling him into her arms.

"You´re a really silly boy you know that? Silly and spoiled." Ciarán purred hapilly, nestling against her chest "You´ve been feeling lonely lately haven´t you? Where have you..." She looked up and around, only now noticing her kitchen window allowed her to see the kitchen next door. She saw a tall and slender figure standing over there...

Severus Snape.

Wearing the same usual cryptic expression on his face Severus looked at could almost see a certain tension in the way he stood, some...preocupation...Only now did it hit her that he was always like this...tense, alert, almost as if perpetually prepared for an attack, or anticipating a catastrophe. Before it had looked to her as merely a sour and unpleasant man being his sour and unpleasant self. But after talking to Fr. Thomas she couldn´t help but think it was something else...A little young scrawny kid...taciturn...without friends... She held his gaze for a while wondering why he was looking at her like that, but amazingly she didn´t feel uneasy... More than discomfort there was an incredibly pathetic sadness in all of that...Two people separated by the dirty walls of the run down houses of an old abandoned street...two people willingly buried in that ghost town of a neighbourhood...She knew what she was there for...but what about him?

She smirked bitterly...Did she? Did she really know what she was there for? What was the point of coming here, after all? It wasn´t about some silly house deed and her gradfather´s past was it? How could she be so sure that she wasn´t going on what she knew was nothing but a wild goose chase, just because it provided her with the perfect excuse to run away from...from what? Her father´s death? The breakup with Richard? The fact that maybe, just maybe she wasn´t as strong as her mother and sister expected her to be? If only Paul were here, he´d find a way to laugh it off...But he wasn´t...Nor, Paul, or her father, or her grandfather...they were all gone and she had no idea were she stood anymore...She held Severus´gaze, quietly and attentively as if looking at her own reflection in a mirror, as if seeing into his dark eyes just how many years had passed for her without her ever noticing, watching in his arcane expression just how much of a blank she was inside.

Ciarán purred.

After a second she blinked and smiled at her own silliness...Obviously, Ciarán had been visiting Severus again...and her neighbour was probably looking to see if the cat had made its way back...Evelyn could bet he was just as amazed as she was at Ciarán´s bizarre reluctance to get back inside. Certainly Mr. Snape wasn´t expecting to see a silly woman standing like a fool at her own window, looking back at him like he was a ghost. No wonder he seemed puzzled.

"I see you´ve been bothering our neighbour again...You really like him don´t you?" She murmured looking down at her cat. Ciarán simply continued to purr lazily. She looked up again, a tired smile lingering on her lips and waved, trying to keep some semblance of normalcy. Then, feeling too exhausted to cook anything, she went back to her bedroom... Frankly, she wasn´t even hungry anymore.


	11. Part 3 Autumn, 1998 -Chapter 4

October, 5th

Cokeworth,

Downtown

Muggle bookstores...Severus couldn´t even remember the last time he had stepped into one of them, if ever. There was something just so annoyingly mundane about them that pretty much grated on his nerves. Books were precious and powerful objects, invented to impart knowledge, to put forward ideas and new concepts, to preserve wisdom and history. Entire countries, entire continents, the course of History itself had been changed by them. Leave it to muggles to turn such objects into just another commercial product, no different from toilet paper or domestic appliances. He walked into the large store and immediately frowned...fluorescent lights, that pretentiously pseudo-post-modern décor, tall and boxy bookshelves filled with decent books mixed together with muggle rubbish, the usual "child friendly" corner with gaudy toys and ridiculous costumed recreators that did nothing to confine the little brats to the space where they were supposed to be, novelty items that had no business being sold among books...

Severus just knew he´d leave that place with a splitting headache.

But there was at least one advantage to the muggles insistence in turning everything into a product...it meant some things were easier to find. After spending the whole Sunday reading Miss Black´s book and most of his Monday taking obsessive notes on it, Severus had come to the easy conclusion that if he wanted to discover more about her, and above all to discover more about what her grandfather had or had not told her about the Wizarding World, then her books would be a perfect start. She was a young scholar, and from what he had read on the back of her book, a very active one, with a number of recently published works, so most certainly the best shot at finding her other books would be a popular muggle bookstore chain, even if the mere thought irked him.

After some time trying to figure out his way among travelling guides, self-help trash, and popular titles that nobody with half a mind would dare call literature, he was approached by a smiling attendant, a young man barely out of his teens, with ginger hair and a pitiful expression that just screamed "doing whatever it takes to pay his way through college".

"Do you need any help, sir?"

"Yes...I´m looking for any book you have by this author." Severus showed him the book and watched as his eyes widened a bit

"Evelyn Black...Her books are really good, sir..."the young man smiled

"Don´t tell me she´s famous..."

"Well, if you´re a History student or have any interest in Medieval studies, then yes, she sort of is"

"Let me guess..." Severus glanced at the name tag "Andrew...you´re a history student..."

"Yes, sir. At Sanford" Andrew smiled, apparently very pleased to see a costumer willing to have a conversation with him. "Actually when this book was released she came over to give a lecture. It was really interesting...and it really didn´t hurt that she´s fit..."

"The books, Andrew!" Severus cut him off, mildly annoyed.

"Oh, of course" the young man let out a goofy giggle, making Severus roll his eyes "Follow me, they are right here, in our History section..."

They walked past the shelves all the way to the back of the back of the store, thankfully far away from the children´s section. Severus looked around and noticed that´s were most "serious" books were.

"Why that doesn´t surprise me?"

"Excuse me, sir?"

"Nothing...I think I can take it from here, thank you."

"If you need any help I´ll be right there."

As the young man walked over to greet his next client, Severus started to peruse the bookshelves. He breathed in the smell of new paper as his eyes roamed the rows of neatly arranged volumes fresh out of printing, following the somewhat disarranged supposedly-alphabetical order. Severus shook his head, silently deploring muggles´ disregard for simple things like organisation and knowledge, and took a quick look at the ensemble of works compiled before starting to look for those he had come for.

"Black...Black... Barlow...Barrow...Bauer...Black...Evelyn Black."

He found a total of four volumes authored by Evelyn Black...each and every one with the most interesting titles. "Merlin, beyond the legend" "Nicolas Flamel and the Philosopher´s stone- a historical perspective" "Bestiarum vocabulum – A compendium of medival beasts and heraldic symbols" "Unveiling the beast-The man-eater of Gevaudan" ...other than those , Severus also found the same one he had just read with such vivid interest, "Witch trials in Ireland". A prolific writer Ms. Black seemed to be...One wouldn´t say so just by looking at her...she was what? 30, 35 years old at most...To have that many books to her name she must have started her academic career at a very young age...Severus knew muggles studied much longer than wizards, college, masters degrees, PhDs...The average muggle scholar started his or her career much later than the average wizard scholar...and yet Ms. Black seemed to have already somewhat made a successful career for herself before hitting her forties. More startling still, she seemed to have chosen nothing but magical subjects to write about...He wouldn´t be surprised if he happened to stumble upon books with those exact same titles in the Hogwarts library. But never mind the theme, to become such a prolific academic at her age, in any field of expertise, she had to be very bright ...and that only worried him all the more. A woman with her brains wouldn´t take long to find out something, if not all about, the Wizarding World... Particularly judging for her origin and professional choices...Actually Severus wouldn´t be too surprised if she already knew something about it...Marius Black could have told her or she could have discovered by herself, or maybe both. Minerva was right to be apprehensive...

Severus picked up all the books and made his way to the counter. As soon as he got back home he´d start studying. He had to make an assessment of what exactly he was dealing with here... who was Professor Evelyn Black and just how much of a threat she posed or could pose to the statute of secrecy.

-

Severus walked up Spinner´s End, quietly enjoying the sound of his steps into the cobbled pavement... He had spent so much of the year trapped inside his house, that now he had, surprisingly, found a brand new appreciation for the world outside. Usually he might find a walk around downtown Cokeworth boring at best and hellish at worst...Wandering about among muggles, with their noisy and smelly cars, their ridiculously fast life-pace, their loud music, buses, advertisements plastered onto every single surface...it could be pure torture... But it for whatever reason today it had been almost...entertaining. In any case it was better than being locked inside all day long, or at least it seemed so, now that he actually had something to do with his time. Of course, he´d never really appreciate muggles and their ways...but a dosis of muggle non-sense might just make a dull day a bit more interesting. However, returning to silent and dead Spinner´s End, where he couldn´t hear much other than the wind on the trees and the noises of animals on the woods behind his house, was still much more soothing to his nerves.

Of course his days were bound to become a whole less quiet if that Irish parrot really decided to move next door...with her car and small-talk...As much as Severus could appreciate the diversion that investigating her could bring to his life, he wasn´t really sure he´d take her cheerful and talkative demeanour in stride...

"Speaking of the devil" he rolled his eyes, hearing the familiar sound of Miss Black´s red Volvo coming from behind him. He kept walking as the car passed by and stopped just a few feet ahead, in front of her house. She came out of it, looking positively patrician in a turquoise-green shirt with a delicate brown pattern and a brown, knee-length skirt, wearing her usual insensible choice of footwear today in the form of brown leather shoes with impossibly thin heels( Severus had to wonder how they could support her weight without causing excruciating pain), her hair pulled up in a loose bun. She also had a large leather handbag and some folders. Certainly she was coming from some professional or academical appointment. As soon as she was out of the car she smiled at him.  
"Hello!" she beamed, walking towards him balancing a brown leather coat and the folders on her left arm as she reached for her keys inside her bag.

"Hello, Ms. Black" he let out as he approached her, forcing himself to sound as neutrally polite as possible.

"How are you doing?" She smiled, making Severus roll his eyes...what was this crippling urge of making small conversation this woman had?

"Fine." He answered laconically, still unsure if he should stop and pretend he cared enough to converse with her or just keep walking and hope she´d get the cue and shut up.

"Oh, there´s Noble and Co. around here?" she casually told him, gesturing his bag

"Downtown around the corner from the subway station" he answered flatly, hoping she wouldn´t want to know what books he had just bought. A bagful of her books was an excellent way of coming off as a stalker.

"Thank you. I´ll make sure to drop by when I get the time...Tough it won´t be anytime soon, I´m afraid"

"Still busy with your little research, I see?" He let out, almost acidly.

"Actually no...Looking for a job.." she smirked

"A job?"

"Well, yes. I left my old job at Ennis, and I can´t just sit around getting the royalties from my published works and doing nothing...I´d go crazy in less than I week..."she laughed softly

"So you´re really planning on staying in Cokeworth..."

"I don´t know for sure...It all depends on how things go...As it is finding a teaching position won´t be any easy, with the school year having started already..."

"I thought you were a College Professor"

"I´ve taught High school as well..."She opened the door and turned back to him "Actually I..."

Her sentence got cut off midway by the sound of a telephone ring in her living room. Relieved, Severus seized the opportunity to put an end to the conversation.

"You should get that."

"Well, see you latter then..." she smiled, making her way in, as Severus walked away, feeling somewhat relieved.

-

Closing the door behind herself, Evelyn hung her coat, locked the door and carefully set her folders on the coffee table before picking up the phone and letting her body fall lazily onto the couch.

"Well, a whole weekend in England and you already forgot you have a family, Lyn? Why haven´t you called yet?" a cheerful female voice on the other side of the line beamed

Evelyn´s lips curled up in a smile. Who else but her dear sister Caitlin would berate her for not calling even before deeming it necessary to say "hello" like any normal person would.

"And 'Hi' to you too, Kitty-Cat" she let out softly, kicking off her shoes. "How are you doing?"

"Same as always...does my life ever change?"

"Count your blessings. And mam?"

"Well you know Mrs. Black...she´s always perfectly fine, even if the world is falling to pieces around her. She´s been extra annoying lately, with you moving away...Speaking of which, you should be giving me some interesting news. After all you´re the one who moved to another country and all." Evelyn could feel the Caitlin´s gentle laughter dying out to be replaced a more serious tone "So...did your crazy mission bear any fruit?"

"Yes and no... As it turns out grandpa´s house does exist. It´s near an old deactivated mill, in the abandoned part of town..."

"Abandoned part of town? So you´re saying the house is a ruin, is that it?"

"Not at all...the house is standing,very well conserved ...It´s even furnished. I´m living in it, actually"

"You´re kidding me..."

"No!" Evelyn chuckled, enjoying her sister´s amazement "I´m right on the living room couch as we speak...and let me tell you, it´s a gorgeous house! Art nouveau and art deco decorations, books, tapestries...You´d go bonkers if you saw it."

"Really? Wow...and all of that belonged to grandpa Marius?"

"According to the documents, yes. And I checked everything, the documentation is completely legit... It was all his..."

"Jesus, Mary, Joseph and a donkey, Lyn...How come he never told anybody? "

"This is what I´d like to know...I´ve been investigating this whole house in the past few days, and by the way this is why I didn´t call you before, but I digress..."

"And you found anything?"

"No...other than old books and some weird objects, nothing...Well, there were no bugs"

"What?"

"I mean no bugs, no roaches...and no mice either, no nothing...the house has been abandoned for so long and there´s nothing like that."

"Oh, leave it to Miss Clean-freak to notice that..."

"You don´t get it, do you...The house is...pristine. It was never even broken into...I mean everything seems intact" Evelyn heard a long pause on the other side of the line, as Ciarán hoped onto her lap, purring lazily.

"That´s not funny, Lyn...next you´re gonna tell me you hear voices at night"

"Okay, don´t believe me...But I´m telling you this house belonged to somebody and their objects are still here. It´s almost as if the owners just disappeared. And to be honest, I actually don´t think grandpa has ever lived here..."

"Maybe he inherited from someone and never claimed it...So whoever lived there before just left..."

"And left all their belongings behind?"

"Don´t ask me! You´re the one playing detective, Lyn...But, if I remember right, there was a family tree in those old papers dad left us, wasn´t there?"

"Yes. About that...remember that Eileen Prince I told you about...the one I thought could still be alive?"

"Yes, did you find her?"

"Not exactly. As it turns out she lived just next door from this house...You remember I told you the two houses were part of the same property, right?"

"Yeah, yeah...so you talked to her?"

"She passed away away some twenty years ago..."

"Oh..dead end, then..."

"No...Prince was her maiden name, she was married and had a son. He lives right next door."

"Oh!" Evelyn could feel her sister´s interest had pique just by the sound of her voice "And what is he like?"

"Quite a character...His name is Severus Snape and..."

"What the hell kind of name is Severus?"

"Well, for your information 'Severus' happens to be the name of several saints and Roman emperors..." Evelyn rolled her eyes, slightly exasperated "I swear to God is like you take pride in not knowing stuff...Dad was a history teacher for crying out loud"

"And I´m a nurse...I´m under no obligation to know emperors and saints...okay maybe saints... speaking of which is this guy catholic?"

"And why the hell do you want to know that?"

"Well...Just covering some bases...you know mam will be asking"

"Mam won´t be asking anything, because I have nothing whatsoever to do with Mr. Snape! Seriously, is that all you think about? You see, this is how you land losers like Sean fecking Sullivan "

"Oh, Lyn, chill out will you? I´m just kidding..." Caitlin laughed quietly "So tell me more about this neighbour with an imperial and sanctified name"

"Will you stop interrupting me with nonsense?"

"I´ll try."

"Well, no, he is not catholic so let´s keep mam out of this..."

"How do you know?"

"You said you weren´t going to interrupt!"

"Is what you get for trusting me."

"My fault then...Well,the local priest told me he isn´t Catholic, so drop it, okay?"

"Damn it woman, already running a background check on him?! And people always said I was the boy crazy sister"

"I didn´t...Oh, forget it! Anyway I went over to his house last Friday looking for his mother and he welcomed me with the most obnoxious display of passive-aggressiveness I´ve ever had the misfortune to fall victim of...He apologised the next day tough...It seems he´s going through a rough patch in life...""

"How so?"

"He´s a chemistry teacher and had some sort of work related accident, so he had to take a leave it seems..."

"Oh, the poor man...Is he cute?"

"CAITLIN!"

"It´s a legitimate question!"

"He is...normal I guess. About my age, tall, thin, dark hair, dark eyes, hooked nose...In severe need of some emergency Head & Shoulders, worst case of greasy hair I´ve ever seen...Nothing to write home about, really..."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. Now can you stop being a annoying and listen?"

"Okay go on...so, did the holly-named greasy chemistry teacher tell you anything about grandpa´s house?"

"Nothing...he came around to visit Saturday..."

"Oh did he?" Evelyn puffed at the sound of poorly disguised giggles coming from the other woman.

"Shut up!"

"Okay, sorry..."

"...so he came over to apologize for being such an unbearable pain in the arse before, and I showed him grandpa´s papers...he seemed to be as confused about it all as I was...So, no luck there either. All I got out of him was a new reader it seems..."

"A new reader?"

"He borrowed one of my books...he likes history, I guess"

"He borrowed one of your books...because he likes history." Caitlin smirked "Seriously Evelyn, that´s the oldest trick in the book!"

"You know, is not because you take pride in being wilfully ignorant that the rest of world can´t enjoy a little culture"

"Oh, dear...I do realise you´re a great writer and a brilliant academic...but trust me...no man, intellectual or not, is going to knock on your door and randomly borrow a book just for your fantastic brains..."

"You obviously haven´t met Severus Snape"

"Oh, of course...He´s a serious teacher who enjoys books, intellectual conversation and cares only about the affairs of the spirit...and has a saintly Roman imperial name...frankly Lyn...this man is exactly your type!"

"Maybe if he had manners and a sense of humour...And washed his hair!"

"Well if all his flaws boil down to bad manners, being humourless and needing his hair washed, he´s still better boyfriend material than a lot of guys I´ve dated..."

"Well if we´re using the guys you dated as a standard for comparison I might as well date a baboon..."

"Oh get off your high horse...point me to one man who doesn´t have room for improvement"

"Caitlin, just stop, will you?...But tell me, the girls, how are they doing?"

"Great...Alice has been asking about you non-stop...She did this beautiful art project at school she wanted to show you. And Lizzie wants to know when they get to visit you in your new home"

"Are they home now?" Evelyn opened a broad smile. Caitlin´s two daughters just had a way of making her heart melt at the mere mention of their names. Alice and Elizabeth were the family´s pride and joy. Evelyn loved them both like they were her own children, and many a time she had had to be almost a second mother for them, seeing as their father was usually not in the picture and her sister had a lot on her plate between working to support the house and raising them...Actually Sean not being anywhere to be found most of the time was still better than actually having that lousy excuse for a father around the girls. Alice was six and Lizzie just three...both far too young to be exposed to the drunken shenanigans of Cat´s ex-husband.

Alice in particular had a hard time dealing...at her age, she already understood something was off, but was not yet old enough to figure out exactly what. Worse still, she was remarkably mature for her age, she had this insightful mind and deeply thoughtful nature...Caitlin kept joking that she might have given birth to Alice but she was Evelyn´s soul child, as both aunt and niece had a tendency to worry about everything, to overthink everything...Alice even resembled her physically, much more than she did either of her parents. As much as Evelyn adored both girls, she couldn´t deny having a special connection with Alice.

"No, mam just picked them up. I´m going to work in an hour, and she´s baby-sitting for me..."

"Tell them I´ll call tomorrow. Actually why don´t you tell Alice to send me one of her projects? Get Lizzie to send me something too. My living room needs some pretty things for decorating. "

"Oh, you think they aren´t preparing something already?" Caitlin laughed softly, a note of pride in her voice.

"A surprise then? Can´t wait to get it. And tell them that as soon as I has everything organised they can come to visit me."

"They´ll be over the moon. Oh, crap, look at the time. I gotta go now, Lyn. I can´t be late today, I´ve run out of excuses this month"

"Cat?"

"Yeah?"

"Is Sean behaving?" Evelyn asked almost apprehensively,noticing a soft sigh coming from her sister´s lips.

"Don´t worry..."

"Just let me know if...anything..."

"I will. Seriously, Lyn, don´t worry. I´m okay, the girls are okay...And you let me know how things go with you Imperially named greasy neighbour"

"Shut up!"

"Bye."

Evelyn pulled herself from the couch and made her way into the kitchen. After washing her hands she opened the fridge and took out the lambneck she had bought that morning before the job interview. A weekend away from Ireland and she was already home sick enough to go out of her way to buy lambneck to make an Irish stew to eat all by herself. Her mother was right, it didn´t matter how many books she wrote, how many conferences she gave, how many times she travelled abroad and how many world-renowned academics praised her feats...deep down Evelyn would always be a country girl. She laughed softly at the thought of her mother. Sophia would never get tired of trying to get Evelyn to "come back home, settle down and give her some grandchildren before it was too late". Her last birthday had been naught but pure drama, as Mrs Black couldn´t bear the thought of her oldest daughter being 35, unwed and childless...Particularly after living with a boyfriend for four years without ever even considering tying the knot. Shaking her head slightly, she got all the ingredients out and put them on the counter, before going upstairs to get changed.

-

Severus closed the door and dropped his bag full of books on the couch. It was certainly odd having a neighbour after all these years, if not uncomfortable. He had yet to get used to these minor and pointless little rituals like asking "how are you?" in a way that it sounded like he meant it...Such a hassle...He tossed his jacket in the general direction of the coat hanging, never bothering to check whether he had missed it or not; and went into the kitchen to fetch himself a glass of water.

"The furry annoyance probably hasn´t come to visit today..." he smirked looking at the broken window Miss Black´s cat had made into his own personal passage to his house. He turned to refill his glass when the sound of flapping wings coming from the living room called his attention. Setting his glass on the table he walked out of the kitchen just in time to see an owl make its way in through the front window, drop a package on his coffee table and fly away. Sitting down on his couch, Severus picked up the package and opened it to find the latest issue of "The Daily Prophet" and an envelope with Hogwarts seal and Minerva´s signature on it.

_Dear Severus,_

I´m sure you´re wondering the reason for this letter, so soon after the last time we spoke. I´m writing to give you a bit of good news, which I´m sure will please you greatly. I just received word that the Lestranges, Rodolphus and Rabastan, have been captured and are, at the time of my writing you, being escorted to Azkaban.

After months of rebuilding the school and trying to get everything back on track, this comes as a great relief to us all. Our work is simply just starting, but at least we can all be sure we´re going in the right direction. I wish you were here with us, my friend. This school misses its most talented potions master( Professor Slughorn forgive me.)

I hope you are doing well. Don´t hesitate to write me if you feel like you need to talk, or at least to give me some news of your own.

Sincerely, Minerva

PS. Let me know how things are progressing with Ms. black.

Severus sneered as he put the letter back into its envelope and opened the enclosed issue of the prophet, uninterestedly browsing through the full front-page article on the arrest of the Lestranges...Ms. Black...It almost seemed like Minerva thought he was having fun with this whole business of investigating his Irish parrot of a neighbour. He shook his head, dropping the newspaper and turning to the floridly decorated beige plastic bag containing the books he had just bought. Well, if anything investigating Miss Black would, at least, make for some interesting reading material, he mused, taking the books out of the bag and quickly scrolling through the pages...He should remember to show these to Minerva next time they met. She´d surely be as amazed as he was.

"Speaking of which...I still haven´t returned that book Ms. Black lent me...Might as well take the opportunity to pose a few more questions to the 'nice lady' next door, since Headmistress mcgonagall seems so keen on having me find out more about her. I surely would love to enquire as her as to her sources..." He thought to himself, getting up from the couch and reaching for the borrowed book that was sitting on top of a pile by the armchair.


End file.
